• In January 2018, the government approved a reform of public long-term care insurance for the elderly—the National Long-Term Care Program. The components that are meant to provide the elderly with long-term care will have an annual cost of about NIS 1.4 billion when the program reaches full implementation in 2021. In that year, the public expenditure on long-term care insurance for the elderly will have increased by 18 percent relative to the level of expenditure in 2015.
  • This is an important reform as it improves service to citizens and its affordability for households. However, the reform does not deal with many of the problems in the system for long-term care services in Israel and in some cases it is unclear whether the allocated budget is compatible with its goals. Furthermore, some of the solutions proposed by the program do not take into account forecasts for future trends.
  • The importance of long-term care insurance will grow in coming years due to the aging of the population. The system of public and private services for the elderly who need long-term care should be reassessed by a committee of experts who will relate, in particular, to the following issues: preparing for forecasted future trends in the demand for long-term care and the expected growth in public and private expenditure as a result of demographic trends; improvement in home-care and services in the community, including supervision, training, professional guidance and work relations between caregivers and elderly patients; issues related to private long-term care insurance, including the structured underinsurance that exists in the indexation of insurance benefits to the CPI; and the full utilization of rights in the system.​