Social solidarity in healthcare: The Israeli case

While solidarity is at the basis of all social health insurance systems, little has been done to define and analyze it empirically. Equity in the delivery of medical care and progressivity of its finance are socially important, but miss the main principle of social health insurance systems – mutual help. The present study views social solidarity not as a value but as cross-subsidies among individuals, which are necessary to achieve a separation between finance and delivery of care in order to make healthcare affordable universally. A solidarity index, derived from the Kakwani Progressivity Index, is suggested and applied to the Israeli national health insurance system in 2010. The observed solidarity index for 2010 Israel is 0.242. Adjusting for possible barriers in use does not change the index. About 85% of the solidarity index originates from income solidarity. If the entire health budget was financed by the general revenue, the solidarity index would rise to 0.259. The level of solidarity in Israel is close to the one found in Canada, Finland and France. More comparative results over time and over systems will enable further insights and uses. The sustainability of solidarity requires, however, some altruism among the rich with respect to the health state of the poor.