Members of Meuhedet Health Services are the most satisfied of all health funds, according to a survey for by Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute commissioned by the government. The survey found that 94% of members of Meuhedet Health Services were satisfied or very satisfied, compared with 92% of members of Maccabi Healthcare Services, 86% of Leumit health Services, and 85% of Clalit Health Services.
Conventional wisdom held that Clalit's bottom ranking was due to the high proportion of elderly members who require more health services, but the study refutes this. Elderly respondents reported higher rates of satisfaction from their health funds than younger respondents.
The public's satisfaction from the health funds has risen slightly compared with last year across a number of variables, including attitudes of receptionists and nurses,, doctors' professionalism and their attitudes towards patients.
The survey also found, however, no improvement in waiting times for doctors or specialists. 43% of respondents waited for up to a week to see a specialist, 18% waited for one to two weeks, and 39% waited for more than two weeks. 60% of those who waited for more than two weeks said that the waiting period was unreasonable.
63% of respondents waited for up to 15 minutes to see a family doctor, and 17% waited for more than half an hour.
It seems that young, wealthy, sabras are the least satisfied members of the health funds, and they drag down the averages. 77% of health funds members among the bottom 20% of the population said that they were satisfied, as were 70% of elderly members, and 70% of new immigrants. 90% of Arab health funds members expressed satisfaction.
52% of respondents said that they were dissatisfied about the cost of services, inadequate response, and the limited basket of healthcare services. 42% said that they were dissatisfied with the low level of professionalism of the system, poor attitudes, and the low level of service.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 4, 2008
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