The Medical Association's Ethics Bureau and Physicians for Human Rights strongly oppose MK Michal Waldiger's bill to deny eligibility for funding health services that improve quality of life for security prisoners, which will be put to a vote tomorrow (Wednesday) for the first time in the National Security Committee.
MK Waldiger's bill was born out of a petition filed by a security prisoner, Asraa Ja'abbas, a resident of Jabal Mukaber in Jerusalem, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison after carrying out a terrorist attack in October 2015. After she was sentenced to prison, Jabaas filed a petition with the Supreme Court, demanding that it order the IPS to transfer a financial commitment for a medical procedure to reconstruct part of her nose, in accordance with the recommendation of the plastic surgery clinic at Rambam Hospital.
Intends to turn off the faucet for security prisoners. MK Michal Waldiger, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
As noted, MK Waldiger will raise the vote tomorrow in the National Security Committee in order to prevent cases in which the State of Israel is required to fund cosmetic procedures of security prisoners. The Israel Medical Association opposes on the grounds that it is impossible to discriminate in the provision of medical treatment. According to the bill, a security prisoner will not be entitled to state funding for medical treatment aimed at improving the quality of life, including cosmetic treatments and drugs that are not included in the health basket.
Dr. Yossi Welfish, Chairman of the Medical Association's Ethics Bureau, addressed MK Zvika Fogel, Chairman of the National Security Committee, and warned: "The Israel Medical Association strongly opposes bills that distinguish between types of prisoners with regard to medical treatment. According to the rules of medical ethics, every human being is entitled to medical treatment, without discrimination, whether he is a prisoner or a certain type of prisoner. Therefore, any treatment given to one prisoner in accordance with the National Health Insurance Law will be given to another."
Strongly opposes the proposal. Dr. Yossi Welfish, Photo: Yehuda Peretz
He added that "doctors in the State of Israel are committed to providing treatment according to standards of equality and justice, and without mixing extraneous considerations. We regret the bills that mix things with nothing and threaten to damage the asset of the iron sheep – medicine."
A position paper by Physicians for Human Rights noted that the bill authorizes the National Security Committee and the Minister of National Security to make exceptions and decide to whom to provide medical treatment: "The fact that any medical treatment will be determined at the ministerial level violates medical ethics in which treatment must be provided on the basis of medical need and by virtue of the basket to which the state has committed."
Who will he support? MK Zvika Fogel, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
It was also noted that the definition of "life-enhancing health services" may spill over into essential treatments, and there is a real danger that prisoners will not also receive pain treatments, physiotherapy, treatments for vision problems, and more. The bill contradicts the Patient's Rights Law and international conventions to which Israel is a signatory. "Health care teams and doctors are committed to doing good – not just avoiding harm. Therefore, once a standard of medical care is set in a country that is consistent with its values and the values of its health community, it becomes the standard it is obligated to provide to all those under its responsibility – not least when it comes to people in custody who cannot provide treatment themselves."
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