Health insurance if living in Israel for a year

coloredleaves

Sun, Jul 15 2018, 9:50 pm

Any tips on how a young american couple going to Israel for a year or two works out health insurance? Do they stay on their American plans? Is separate Israel insurance needed?

amother

Slateblue

Sun, Jul 15 2018, 10:33 pm

Do not use an agent that works in United States for the Israeli insurances because there has been a huge Scandal recently and my friend was jipped off by few hundreds of dollars the best bet is to take the insurance that the Seminary girls take meuchedet or something like that

essie14

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 12:43 am

http://www.egertcohen.co.il/egert/
Great, English speaking insurance agents.
I have no affiliation, but we have used them to get travel insurance for visiting family members.

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 3:23 am

Get onto one of the main insurance policys like Mehudet/Maccabi. Can get on directly with them once you arrive in Israel at one of thier offices. Also, can get onto Bituach Leumi if you have a visa and are here for 6 monthes.

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 3:32 am

eb wrote:

You can get onto a kupat cholim even if you have not made aliyah????

Mrs.K

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 5:03 am

YES. Don't bother with the American insurance companies. When they get here they should just sign up for the Israeli insurance.

I live in an American neighborhood where 75% of the residents are only here for 1-2 years. After they get here, they go to Meuchedet next to the Mir and sign up.

amother

Silver

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 5:36 am

id love this info too- is kupat cholim and Meuchedet the same thing? and is there a cost? if so approximately what? does it cover maternity?

also this may sound totally ignorant, but what does a couple need government wise to go for the year? obviously passports. do they need to apply for visas? my daughter and her husband may not decide for sure till the last minute. how does getting a visa work? is it needed? do they need to know which yeshiva he will learn at before applying?

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 5:49 am

amother wrote:

In terms of kupat cholim, meuhedet is just ONE of the four major kupot cholim in israel.

In terms of what a couple would need, I would talk to either the consulate, the jewish agency or maybe even nefesh bnefesh so they do everything correctly.

imasoftov

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 8:07 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

In terms of kupat cholim, meuhedet is just ONE of the four major kupot cholim in israel.

Here are all of the names (in English alphabetic order, in Hebrew Meuchedet would be before Maccabi) with links to their English home pages

Clalit http://www.clalit-global.co.il/en/
Leumit https://www.leumit.co.il/eng/home/
Maccabi https://www.maccabi4u.co.il/17......aspx
Meuchedet http://lang.meuhedet.co.il/

imasoftov

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 8:13 am

amother wrote:

iwhat does a couple need government wise to go for the year? obviously passports. do they need to apply for visas? my daughter and her husband may not decide for sure till the last minute. how does getting a visa work? is it needed? do they need to know which yeshiva he will learn at before applying?

Here is information about a student visa. It doesn't discuss spouses of students but the form does have a space for spouse.

https://www.gov.il/en/service/....._type

essie14

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 8:47 am

amother wrote:

also this may sound totally ignorant, but what does a couple need government wise to go for the year? obviously passports. do they need to apply for visas? my daughter and her husband may not decide for sure till the last minute. how does getting a visa work? is it needed? do they need to know which yeshiva he will learn at before applying?

They will enter the country on a tourist visa which is good for 3 months. No need to apply beforehand. Everyone gets it at the airport.
Then before the 3 months is up, they will have to go to Misrad Hapnim and extend.
Might possibly need some documentation from the yeshiva to get a student visa. The student visa will stipulate that they cannot work while they are here.
I'm sure every yeshiva that has students from ch'ul has someone who helps with this.

amother

Silver

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 9:15 am

Thank u for this comprehensive info! How would one know which of the four is better? And what if the spouse does wnat to look for a job?

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 10:12 am

amother wrote:

Thank u for this comprehensive info! How would one know which of the four is better? And what if the spouse does wnat to look for a job?

I believe that spouse would need a working visa.

amother

Oak

Mon, Jul 16 2018, 4:34 pm

amother wrote:

Thank u for this comprehensive info! How would one know which of the four is better? And what if the spouse does wnat to look for a job?

For a job they need a work permit.

Of the four, depends which area they will be living in. Each kupat cholim has branches all over but the services they provide tend to vary from place to place. eg in central yerushalayim most people use meuchedet, where I live most use klalit.

You start off with a basic health plan and then you can up the grade (in any of them) to include additional services. Generally speaking, different kupot provide different supplementary health plans. I don't know if it is worth it for a young couple. If you have kids, it is very useful.

The best thing to do is to find out where they will be living and which doctor they will want to use and work it out from there. (many doctors have their own private clinics but work through one or more of the kupot)