Reducing health inequalities as a major recommendation in fighting poverty: A case study of recommendations of a national committee in Israel

Background: Poverty and economic inequalities remain a persistent problem in Israel. The rate of relative poverty (20.9%) is the highest among OECD countries (11.3%) and higher than that of the EU (9.4%). In an effort to... [ view full abstract ]

Background: Poverty and economic inequalities remain a persistent problem in Israel. The rate of relative poverty (20.9%) is the highest among OECD countries (11.3%) and higher than that of the EU (9.4%). In an effort to tackle the problem and declaring that there is a political will to reduce poverty, the Minister of Social Welfare and Social Services appointed a public Committee to Fight Poverty in November 2013. It was commissioned to recommend state-wide strategies to fight poverty in a wide scope of life and environment areas, with the purpose of reducing poverty rates to the OCED average within 10 years.
Aims: To present the process in the sub-committee on health as a case study of developing anti-poverty strategies directing scarce resources more effectively toward poor people and making health services more accessible to them.
Process: The sub-committee was guided by the Social Determinants of Health approach adopted by the World Health Organization as a basis for overall policy aiming to decrease social inequalities in health. National data on health inequalities and evidence from social work practice in health care, from focus groups of patients living in poverty, from NGO’s and civil and patients’ rights organizations served as the basis for the sub-committee’s report. I will present the process of prioritizing recommendations, showing the conflicting approaches to tackling health inequalities (universal vs. population specific) among sub-committee members. The final recommendations included anti-poverty strategies for health policy changes targeting people living in poverty, focusing on better access to information and utilization of health rights and making health services financially and physically more accessible to them.
Implementation: The sub-committee’s recommendations were part of the Committee to Fight Poverty’s report which was submitted to the government. So far, only a small budget was allocated without a comprehensive anti-poverty program.