Residents' choice of a placement in periphery hospitals in Israel: The significance of personal/family and professional considerations.

Physician maldistribution affects remote and rural population health indicators and as such constitutes a major concern for health systems. Various countries, including Israel, have sought to remedy this problem, often by implementing more than one intervention simultaneously. In this paper, we explored the considerations that motivated Israeli residents to opt for a position in the periphery, as well as potential factors that could facilitate their retention in these underserved areas.

Health and health care in Israel: an introduction.

Starting well before Independence in 1948, and over the ensuing six decades, Israel has built a robust, relatively efficient public system of health care, resulting in good health statistics throughout the life course. Because of the initiative of people living under the British Mandate for Palestine (1922-48), the development of many of today's health services predated the state's establishment by several decades. An extensive array of high-quality services and technologies is available to all residents, largely free at point of service, via the promulgation of the 1994 National Health Insurance Law.

Recent physician strike in Israel: a health system under stress?

In 2011, a series of physician strikes in Israel followed eight months of unsuccessful negotiations with the government (Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance). Strikes by physicians may be a warning that all is not well in a health system and protestors have claimed that they signify a system failure. In contrast, others argue that strikes have been a feature of the Israeli health system from its inception and should not be a cause for alarm.

Private health insurance policies in Israel: a report on the 2012 Dead Sea Conference.

The private health insurance (commercial and supplementary health insurance) sector has undergone a revolutionary transformation in recent years, both in the number of individuals who own private plans, and in the financial scope of these plans. With these developments in the background, leaders of the Israeli healthcare system convened in December 2012 at the Dead Sea for a discussion on "Private healthcare insurance plans in Israel: Developments, concerns, and directions for a solution". This meeting report summarizes the main issues discussed at the conference.

A framework for developing an evidence-based, comprehensive tobacco control program.

Background: Tobacco control is an area where the translation of evidence into policy would seem to be straightforward, given the wealth of epidemiological, behavioural and other types of research available. Yet, even here challenges exist. These include information overload, concealment of key (industry-funded) evidence, contextualization, assessment of population impact, and the changing nature of the threat.

[Medical ethics and economics in the era of insufficient resources].

Background: During the Golden Age of Medicine (20th Century), scientific and technological breakthroughs enabled physicians to cure people's illnesses. The idealist, romantic approach of medical practice believed in the right of every human being to receive the best treatment possible, regardless of cost. However, the rise in health care expenditure at the end of the 20th Century made this impossible, therefore other approaches were adopted.

Toward a 21st-century health care system: recommendations for health care reform.

The coverage, cost, and quality problems of the U.S. health care system are evident.

What should be given a priority - costly medications for relatively few people or inexpensive ones for many? The Health Parliament public consultation initiative in Israel.

Background: In the past two decades, government and civic organizations have been implementing a wide range of deliberative public consultations on health care-related policy. Drawing on these experiences, a public consultation initiative in Israel called the Health Parliament was established.

Goals: To implement a public consultation initiative that will engage members of the public in the discussion of four healthcare policy questions associated with equity in health services and on priorities for determining which medications and treatments should be included in the basket of national health services.