A Hebrew opinion piece reacts to State Comptroller findings on Israel’s readiness for an aging society, saying the country has neglected the issue despite years of warnings. The writer argues that the problem was identified in advance, but successive governments stopped acting, and now the costs will eventually show up in cuts or taxes.
The article cites current demographic data: Israel has about 10 million residents, and 13 percent are now age 65 or older, or roughly 1.3 million people. When the state was founded, and even in 2010, that share was below 10 percent. The writer says the post-World War II baby boom generation has now reached retirement age, and in about 25 years the over-65 population is expected to reach 2 million, or 15 percent of the population.
The piece explains that older Israelis put heavy pressure on the health system, the National Insurance Institute, and pensions, because retirees receive more from the state than they pay in taxes. That balance can work only when the elderly share stays stable. The State Comptroller’s report, titled “Israel’s Preparedness for Population Aging,” found that the government’s 2015 strategy produced no completed target out of four: higher labor-force participation among people past retirement age, better readiness in health and long-term care, a gradual adjustment of retirement age, and protection of National Insurance finances.
The writer says retirement age rose only slightly, the Ministry for Social Equality made some progress under former minister Merav Cohen, but not enough, and the health system never presented an operational plan. Between 2020 and 2023, geriatric hospitalization beds actually declined. The National Insurance deficit worsened, and if nothing changes, the institute will run short of money by the middle of the next decade, forcing the Treasury to cover the gap at the expense of other spending.
The article blames the decay on political paralysis after 2019, when then attorney general Avichai Mandelblit announced indictments against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It says the National Economic Council, which under Prof. Eugene Kandel pushed the issue in 2015, later stopped following up, and that under Prof. Avi Simhon it failed to submit required monitoring reports since July 2018. The writer concludes that the state has ignored a predictable social and economic time bomb, and that this pattern also appears in education, public transport, and other major systems.
