The Knesset Finance and House committees acted this week to end free health insurance for some 4,000 people, including Cabinet ministers and their deputies, judges of the civil and religious courts and Knesset members themselves. Senior civil servants whose wages are linked to those of deputy Cabinet rank, are threatened as well with cuts in their health benefits.
The beneficiaries were entitled to free coverage both at home and abroad. For Knesset members and their spouses, the benefits were a lifetime privilege. Their children were covered up to the age of 18. Knesset members received over a half billion Shekels in health insurance funds during the first half of fiscal 1985. The Finance Committee has allowed for appeals and a special subcommittee will hear appeals from the judiciary.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
