Health Services in Israel

Abstract

<i>Health Services in Israel</i>, a comprehensive profile of the Israeli health system as it existed in 1965, is the third in a series of reference volumes which began in 1952. This series indicates the unusual nature of the problems with which the people of Israel have had to deal, and the amazing success which they achieved in the years since Israel became a state. In 1948, the Israeli Parliament gave every Jew the right to immigrate to Israel. Since that time, the Jewish population has more than trebled, an immigration rate which, "... in proportion to the settled population, would normally be considered impossible. The right to immigrate was virtually unlimited by any kind of qualification, including physical condition.... Communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, filariasis, and trachoma were rife among them, infant mortality was high, and hygiene was low." This was the point from which the Israel health system began. In