The National Insurance warns: Ministry of Finance seeks to burden the activity of medical boards, thereby harming service to citizens and victims of hostile actions.
The Ministry of Finance recently announced that in the upcoming Arrangements Law, it is interested in passing a decision according to which the handling of issuing parking permits for the disabled will in fact be transferred from the Ministry of Transportation to the National Insurance.
In recent days, several meetings have been held on the subject, with the National Insurance warning that already today, and especially following the events of October 7, the burden placed on the medical boards in the National Insurance is heavy and means a substantial violation of the rights of Israeli citizens, a significant delay in treatment times and the transfer of rights to those eligible, including: people with disabilities, victims of hostilities, seniors, disabled children, and more.
Unfortunately, the State Treasury refuses to acknowledge the implications for citizens, and in talks, Treasury representatives said that the proposal would be advanced, despite the apparent harm.
It should be emphasized that the National Insurance Institute, in parallel with its ongoing work in paying benefits such as: unemployment benefits, maternity benefits, income support, long-term care, old-age pensions, reserve service benefit, hostile actions benefits, and more, is dealing with unusual burdens following the war, and additional areas of activity have been added to it in the last two years, including:
- Grants for evacuees from the North and South
- Benefits for spouses of reservists on duty
- Benefits for new populations victims of hostile actions that were not included in the original law
- Benefits for residents of the southern region who were affected by the October 7th events
- Changes in reserve service benefits amounting to billions of NIS
- Supplements for employers of employees serving in the reserves
- And more
Over the past two years, the Ministry of Finance has transferred the management of economic ripples created by the war to the National Insurance Institute who carried out this mission with a sense of commitment, Zionism, and public mission. It seems that the "method" that has been used in the Treasury recently - transferring projects that the various government ministries are unable to handle to the National Insurance Institute and its employees who are collapsing from the workload - can no longer continue.
The National Insurance employees are an integral part of the community, their loved ones were injured during the October 7 massacre, and fell in the war, and continue to get up every morning with the joy of doing and public mission. It is the public obligation of the National Insurance as a social and civic body to raise a red flag and warn that the handling of parking permits - cannot be transferred from the Ministry of Transportation, which is responsible for the issue, to the National Insurance, as this would mean a serious harm to the work of the medical boards, which are already exceeding the 600,000 boards per year mark.
It is also known that there is a shortage of doctors in the country as a whole and in the medical boards in particular, and especially in the periphery. "It is impossible to continue the practice of the Treasury to transfer powers from other ministries to the National Insurance Institute. The Treasury's decision regarding parking permits does not meet the citizens' expectations and will result in harm to the service and without the consent of the National Insurance," the National Insurance Institute says.