Insurance for medications in Israel

cooksallday

Wed, Nov 09 2016, 11:16 pm

My dh and I are considering Aliyah, but have a lot to think about.
I take a lot of medications, does anybody know about insurance plans and health care coverage? It would make a serious dent if I had to pay hundreds of shekels out of pocket/month..

Thanks

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 2:12 am

There isnt any way to know unless you mention the meds and possibly someone might know if they are covered.
Each kupa (medical coverage) is going to be different. It is very possible that you would be covered, but again, there is no way to know unless we know what we are talking about here.

Iymnok

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 2:33 am

Everyone is entitled to basic coverage by one of the four kupot. You can pay for additional upgrades.
In addition, there is private health insurance available for the things not covered in the regular package and private doctors and procedures.
If these are more normal medications, then you may be fine with the regular upgraded kupa coverage.

essie14

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 3:04 am

Your best bet is to try to find people who have your medical condition and take your medications. In my experience (nothing chronic in our family TG, just one off things) the kupah gives a big discount on many medications.
Every kupah covers things slightly differently so most people with big issues choose a kupah based on what is best for their specific situation. You will have to research your specific things.
The Nefesh B'Nefesh Facebook group and e mail list are good. There's also a Facebook group for Medical Inquiries - https://www.facebook.com/group.....5318/

Marion

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 12:52 pm

There is a "sal trufot" (medications basket) approved every year by the Ministry of Health as part of the national budget. The meds on the list must be subsidized/made easily accessible by the kupot and pharmacies. Many kupot offer more significant discounts when you buy through their pharmacies rather than going elsewhere.

cooksallday

Sat, Nov 12 2016, 6:34 pm

Thank you for the replies. I have a thyroid disorder, so I need to take hormone replacing medications. I will look into the different options and see what can work for us. Where I live, I am lucky to have insurance that pays for 90%.

Teomima

Sat, Nov 12 2016, 10:39 pm

https://www.old.health.gov.il/.....afa=h
That links to the list of medications available according to the current health ministry's sal trufot. That means those meds are available in Israel. You should be able to find lists of medications and their subsidies through the different health funds via the health funds' websites (depending on where you live, certain funds are more or less popular).

http://www.kolzchut.org.il/he/תרופות_בסל_הבריאות
If you read Hebrew, this site gives lots of useful information, especially the third pull-down tab.

*edit : sorry, that second link didn't work well, just copy paste it and it'll work

shabbatiscoming

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 1:02 am

cooksallday wrote:

Cooksallday, I had thyroid cancer and live on eltroxyn. I dont know if that is what you take, but I am lmost 100% sure that the kupot would cover things like that (and its not even expensive at all either)

israeliMD

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 1:39 pm

I'm a physician in Israel. Every health fund must cover the same basic medications (called the basket). You can use the link posted above to see if your medication is in the basket. If it is, it will be covered to some degree. You will probably pay 10-20% of the cost of the medication but there is a pretty low quarterly cap if you have a chronic illness and then it is free. It think it is around 265 shekels per month.

FranticFrummie

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 3:56 pm

I am very happy with Maccabi Gold coverage. Maccabi seems to offer the most English speaking doctors and pharmacists, according to my research.

I did find out that one of my antidepressants (Latuda) is not available in Israel. You can only get it in the US and Canada, and even then it's super expensive. I could not even get an import exemption to mail order it, so I had to taper off, and the withdrawals were horrible. B'H, I seem to be doing fine with just my other meds, so I'm really happy that I didn't need to find a less effective alternative.

If you can post your list of meds, maybe we can do some research for you.