Israel's health-care system is under no threat

• Published in: The Lancet (British edition) 2023-09, Vol.402 (10406), p.959-959
• Main Author: Arbel, Moshe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beverages; Court decisions; Public health; Taxation
• ISSN: 0140-6736; 1474-547X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01750-6

In 2018, the Supreme Court reviewed the Finance Minister's decision not to raise taxes on loose tobacco and ruled against the decision.2 In their Correspondence, Kamin-Friedman and colleagues failed to mention that the decision was based on the infringement of rights, namely the right to health; that the Ministry of Health and Attorney General had asked the court to rule in favour of the petitioner; and that the decision did not mention reasonableness, and there is no guarantee that said amendment would have changed the outcome. [...]scrutiny reveals that the unreasonable decision was made by the city of Jerusalem; the amendment did not limit courts’ authority to intervene in acts and decisions by municipalities; and the Ministry of Education agreed that it was unreasonable to have the primary school where it was placed, and urged the court to rule as such. Regarding the most recent examples—namely the Finance Minister's decision to repeal the tax on sweetened beverages and the Israeli Government's distribution of food vouchers—these decisions remained intact, even as the court was allowed to consider the reasonableness of the decisions.