"They could save thousands of patients who are begging for drugs with the millions of shekels of surplus budgeting.
In the special discussion that took place in the Knesset Health Committee on the hundreds of millions of shekels of the budget surplus of the medicine basket, which are swallowed up in the accounts of the four HMOs - Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet and Leumit.
The discussion took place following the exposure of "Israel Today" a week ago, according to which the HMOs are budgeted in the drug basket with an average surplus of at least NIS 50 million a year beyond what the patients actually receive.
According to estimates by senior health officials, the surplus means about NIS 2 billion that the state budgets in a cumulative surplus from the HMOs for the drugs in the basket, while all these surpluses are swallowed up and disappear in the HMOs' accounts and do not return to the patients.
"Sets destinies"
These data came up in a new report from the Ministry of Health published here for the first time, examining the budgeting of the drug basket from 1995 to 2009.
According to the report, in just three years (2009-2007) the HMOs will be budgeted in the drug basket only for drugs for cancer diseases in excess of NIS 715 million, the drugs for psychiatric diseases will be budgeted in excess of NIS 200 million, the painkillers will be budgeted in excess of NIS 200 million NIS 100 million and the drugs for gastrointestinal diseases will be budgeted in excess of NIS 96 million in these years.
These new findings strengthen the findings of the investigation published in December 2017 in "Israel Hayom", according to which the budget funds' accounts have lost a budget surplus estimated at a cumulative NIS 2 billion.
At the hearing, the chair of the health committee, MK Idit Silman, said that "the basket budget is fateful and determines the future of many patients, and we must monitor and ensure that the budget for medicines is used for its purpose, and no less, make sure the surplus "Surpluses that go around the coffers for unclear and non-transparent purposes."
Without the general
Representatives of the Ministry of Health and the HMOs participated in the discussion, with the exception of Clalit HMO, although it is the largest in the country, and the discussion showed that the Ministry of Health and the Basket Committee do not regularly monitor the budget and that the last check was on data from 14 years ago.
It also emerged that the Ministry of Health does not require comprehensive and systematic regular reporting from the HMOs on the actual expenditure of the basket budgets, and that they do not submit such a report, and see the drug basket budget as another budget item they can use without their control.
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