The Knesset dispersed without a budget, the offices remained sandaled - and the vulnerable pay • What was frozen in health, education, transport, welfare and culture?
• Review - Part One
Israel is entering another election campaign without a budget, and the various projects in government ministries that have known many delays so far - also due to the corona crisis that has hit all industries hard - will remain unanswered even now.
Israel Today reporters reviewed a series of programs that are supposed to help many populations across the country, but continue to raise dust.
Ministry of Health
Uncertainty about the health basket - and the beds are still in the hallways
Patients waiting for a non-basket medicine, hospitalized in the corridors of the inpatient ward, infants who were supposed to start a special breastfeeding treatment program - all of these (and all of us) are affected by early elections alongside the corona crisis, which delays implementation of health ministry work plans.
"There is a package of programs that are supposed to improve the health system, economically, infrastructurally and service-wise," a senior official in the Ministry of Health tells Israel Today, "but unfortunately the package is sitting 'on the shelf' today."
One of the ministry's significant plans, which has been delayed for about a year and a half, is a comprehensive plan that addresses the aging of the population and the challenges of the health system for the coming years.
This is a program that was supposed to inject billions of shekels into the health system.
The plan, designed two years ago by then-Health Minister Litzman and then-office director Moshe Bar-Siman Tov, is to raise the health tax by half a percent. Following this, a budget of billions will be transferred to add hospital beds, implement a national plan to reduce congestion in emergency rooms and wards Internal and determining a regular update to the drug basket at a height of about one and a half percent of the health basket.
Had this plan been implemented, about NIS 750 million would have been added to the health basket, and hundreds of thousands of patients who are currently waiting in uncertainty about the drug basket budget in early 2021 would know for sure that they will receive their medicines.
Due to early elections and dealing with the corona, the ambitious program for improving inpatient wards is also stuck, which includes additions to doctors' standards and hospital beds, alongside a change in the budget that hospitals receive for hospitalized patients.
In addition, the move to add hospital beds to hospitals under the multi-year plan has been halted.
There are 185 beds for which hospitals have not received the standards.
Another program whose implementation is delayed deals with early childhood.
The program, called "The First Thousand Days," was supposed to focus on developing nutrition and a healthy lifestyle in the first three years of a baby's life.
She started as a pilot in the Haifa area - but got stuck due to lack of budget and also due to the fact that the public health services, which are responsible for the milk drops, were busy at the forefront of treating the corona plague.
Meital Yasur Beit-Or
Ministry of Education
Long-term plans have been abandoned - and the gaps may deepen
The corona crisis has caused the Ministry of Education to put out fires, a matter that has contributed to deepening the gaps - and the deterioration into a transitional government format could even deepen them even further.
In recent years, the Ministry of Education has launched several flagship programs: increasing the number of students entering matriculation at the level of five units in mathematics and English, a program to increase the number of gifted and outstanding students, a class for each child in the south and north, participation of Israeli students in international competitions and more.
But the corona came and devoured everything.
Most of the budgets - and also the attention - have been diverted to address the most burning issues: division into capsules, teaching hours, computers, matriculation reduction and more.
Long-term plans have been given secondary priority.
From the beginning, the gaps between students were strong, but the corona, which made learning online, deepened these gaps even further.
Even at the basic level, students with disabilities simply do not have a personal computer or Internet connection, so the basic ability to learn is taken away from them.
The next Minister of Education to enter the ministry will decide how to direct the budgets and what to do with them.
It is to be hoped that programs such as ICT at all schools will not be stopped and completed to the end, so that by the end of the crisis students will have a place to return to.
And it is also better to take care of the mental aspect of the students: the youth movements are also necessary for social and value development.
Noam (Devol) Dvir
Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs
Eradication of poverty in the freeze and cuts in training
The Ministry of Welfare is facing the biggest crisis in its history.
The corona has brought down the plight of underprivileged populations - single women, the disabled, the elderly and poor families, who have only been hurt.
Although there are some programs whose role is to help these populations, the expected budget cuts will make their implementation very difficult.
The health crisis, on the political side, is likely to deepen poverty figures and more families will need food security.
A project on the subject exists, and has also been planned to expand, but this step may be halted in the face of resource depletion.
Disability benefits are also expected to rise, but the pulse is delayed and it seems that in the face of the acute crisis, the disabled will continue to wait.
In addition, cases of domestic violence increased during the crisis, but the budget for the assistance centers for victims and victims of sexual assault should pass only after the approval of the state budget.
Other issues affected are unemployment assistance programs, vocational retraining and more.
Although it has been agreed to establish a professional training directorate, if a new minister is appointed soon, he will be able to decide not to complete the program until the end.
Alongside these, third sector organizations - the associations that help with food, education, assistance to the elderly and more - are also collapsing under the burden due to a decrease in donations and a shortage of volunteers.
They are begging for a budget from the Ministry of Welfare, but it is likely that it will be cut.
Noam (Devol) Dvir
Ministry of Culture
The recovery plan has begun - but fears of a torpedo are growing
The next elections will certainly not add to the chaos that still prevails in the world of culture, which takes place without a horizon, without any future date for the opening of the industry.
The Ministry of Culture is currently leading several projects that are supposed to help institutions and people affected by the crisis.
Although some have set out - it is not clear at this time how another political shock will affect them.
After agreeing on a package of assistance to cultural institutions for a total of NIS 200 million, which is to be distributed to more than 350 institutions, the ministry began the process of examining the institutions and distributing the budget.
The ministry will also increase the fund for distressed artists who have already started helping some of those in need.
Alongside these, the Ministry of Culture examined candidates for various appointments to the Council for Culture and the Arts who have not yet been approved, and also announced the victory of the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation "Here" in the "Broadcasting Culture" project led by the ministry.
Political changes could torpedo attempts to rehabilitate the battered and damaged world, which found itself at the bottom of the list.
In the world of culture, it is hoped that the next Minister of Culture will succeed in rehabilitating the ruins and returning Israeli culture to the happy, prosperous and successful world it was, before a particularly uncultured virus took the screen off him.
Maya Cohen
Department of Transportation
Coastal tracks and road infrastructure will wait for the budget
Along with the corona crisis that has already hit the budget of the Ministry of Transportation - the election has devoured the cards.
The approval of the continuing budget is almost identical to that of 2019, with a minimal addition intended for Corona - also forces the Ministry of Transportation to recalculate a route and not to implement new projects.
According to sources in the ministry, even projects that have already been approved and will be moving to more advanced stages in the near future, will be frozen for the time being.
These are several dozen plans, most of which will be stopped, which concern, among other things, road infrastructure and railways.
Just last week, the ministry announced the approval of the plan to operate the railways along the coast in the planning committee - but following the dissolution of the Knesset - the matter will be frozen until the new Knesset approves the formation of a new government.
The issue of road safety railings, which was extensively reported in "Israel Today", will also have to wait due to a lack of budget, which has meant that not a single railing has been replaced in the past year.
Another major project that will be frozen or halted for some time is the metro train, which will connect about twenty authorities in the center.
The plan offered an investment of about NIS 150 billion, but has so far been shelved.
In addition, Minister Miri Regev's plan for a high-speed train line to the Negev, which will serve mainly the IDF bases that have moved south, will also be stopped for the time being.
A question that remains open: what will happen to the improvement of public transportation, the issue of heavy vehicles and budgets for the RALB and even the traffic police. It is estimated that these will operate through the budget that has already been given, and there will be no additions.
Shlomi Diaz