Necessity forced us to experience Israeli healthcare, which we were reluctant to do, not knowing what to expect and having heard that it was an inferior system to the US.
The way it works is there are three main healthcare organizations in Israel, each one with three available levels of care, depending on how much one wants to pay monthly, but even the highest level of care is not nearly as expensive as health insurance in the US. We signed up shortly after making Alyah last December for the one that was recommended to us by various friends , but we only needed to see the doctor this past week, and the experience turned out to be unexpectedly pleasant.
Our clinic is located on the bottom of the big building in Tzfat. We came in without making an appointment in advance, and first we had to see a nurse, who did the basic preliminary physical examination tasks. The nurse was a nice and professional arab woman, very caring, personable and helpful. After talking to us, she got us an immediate appointment with the doctor, about whom she talked with the greatest respect, promising us that he was “The very best.”
It was late afternoon, but there was still a line of a few patients to the doctor’s ’s office. When we finally entered the office, we saw a kippah-wearing, bearded, middle-aged man in white lab coat who looked energetic, friendly and attentive, despite the fact that it was the end of a long work day for him. The office was small, but had more medical equipment and cabinets than the examination rooms we were familiar in the US. There was a framed Doctors’ Prayer decorating the wall. The Doctor was sitting at the desk and talking to us. He reminded us of an old fashioned family doctor, very caring and knowledgeable, who listens sympathetically and talks to the patient without looking at the computer. The Doctor spoke fluent French and Hebrew. We speak neither very well. With our very limited knowledge of each of the two languages, plus limited knowledge of medical terminology, we managed to understand him, much to our surprise. The Doctor addressed our questions, giving convincing explanations to what was worrying us, wrote a new prescription and recommended a course of actions.
Bur even before we put the new prescription to use, a miracle of healing has already mostly been done through this Doctor, who during the short time that we saw him, was totally present, totally interested in helping, and sharing from the richness of his experience and knowledge. We left smiling, uplifted, relieved, with a feeling of gratitude to G-d, and knowing that we were in good hands.