Chambers of Commerce claim medical tourism bill will ‘kill off the industry’

Hospitals that offer medical tourism claimed that the industry is “on the verge of collapse” due to a bill promoted by the Health Ministry that “will severely impair the freedom of action of companies in this sector.”

In a joint statement on Sunday, the Chambers of Commerce, which represents the hospitals, said medical tourism – providing medical care including performing operations on foreigners – generates close to NIS 1 billion a year.

It also brings in NIS 500 million to the health system for development and purchasing advanced medical equipment, such as new MRI scanners. Like the hi-tech industry, medical tourism is also a very important economic arm of the state’s revenues, they said. Thousands of Israeli families earn their livelihood from medical tourism, including many immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, they said.

World medical tourism has a turnover of more than $100b. a year so that the potential for promoting the field in Israel is enormous, they said. Many countries such as the US, South Korea, Turkey, Germany and France have long internalized this and promoted medical tourism in their country.

“It is worth noting that medical tourists come to Israel not only from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc, but also from Arab countries [including countries with no diplomatic relations with Israel], African countries, and even Western Europe and the US.

The proposed medical tourism law is currently being discussed by the Knesset’s Labor, Social Welfare and Health Committee headed by MK Eli Alalouf.

Last week, the conference approved a “very problematic” clause for companies in the industry that requires companies to present the medical bills to medical tourists for the medical services they receive so that they see how much commission the agents take.” This clause, the hospitals argued, may be a death blow to the industry because a medical tourist who is contemplating treatment in Israel, the US, Turkey or Germany “will certainly not choose Israel as a result, and there is no business law in the country that requires the seller to show the percentage of his profit.”

Asked to comment, the ministry spokesman said the Medical Tourism Bill is based on several principles: “It is designed to prevent harm to Israeli patients and to enable him to benefit from investments in the hospitals arising from medical tourism while giving priority to public medicine. It also increases revenues for the Israeli economy and ensures professional and ethical treatment for the foreigner who comes for care.”

The hospitals, said the ministry, are required to send the tourist an invitation stating the medical diagnosis, the proposed treatments, significant risks, evaluation of additional treatments and the prices of the treatments.

“However, giving the commission for the agent was not required in the bill,” the spokesman said.

“The ministry attaches great importance to maintaining transparency for every patient, including medical tourists,” the ministry spokesman continued. “When a tourist pays for medical service in a hospital, he should be informed for what he paid. The concealment of information from tourists is incompatible with the principles of fair trade and a growing and developing [the] economy.”