Health Ministry Director Demands Exemption From Budget Cuts
Translated & summarized from Calcalist by baba
The Director-General of the Ministry of Health, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, has demanded that the Ministry of Finance exempt the healthcare system from NIS 3.5 billion in planned budget cuts. He warned that the cuts would severely harm public health services, particularly mental health, and are impossible to implement with only two and a half months left in the fiscal year. Bar Siman Tov stated that the health system has already suffered cumulative budget erosion and position cuts since the start of 2026, and that the proposed reductions are based on an outdated budget calculation.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman Tov demanded exemption from NIS 3.5 billion in government budget cuts.
- He warned the cuts would severely harm public health services, especially mental health.
- Bar Siman Tov stated the cuts are impossible to implement with two and a half months left in the fiscal year.
- The health system has already faced NIS 500 million in cuts and over 100 position losses in 2026.
- He argued that indiscriminate cuts undermine national resilience by weakening civilian sectors.
Moshe Bar Siman Tov, the Director-General of the Ministry of Health, has urgently requested that the Ministry of Finance exempt the healthcare system from an additional NIS 3.5 billion in sweeping government budget cuts planned for the coming days. In a sharp letter sent to the Director-General of the Ministry of Finance, Yisrael Malachi, and the Director of the Budget Division, Mehran Pruznafer, Bar Siman Tov warned that implementing these cuts would severely and unavoidably harm public health services.
According to Bar Siman Tov, these new cuts would bring the cumulative damage to the health system's budget since the start of 2026 to approximately NIS 600 million. He noted that NIS 500 million, about 20% of the ministry's current budget, has already been cut in 2026, alongside the elimination of over 100 positions in the past year, in addition to cuts made since the war began. He stressed that unlike previous reductions, the ministry cannot absorb these new cuts financially, calling their implementation "impossible" with only two and a half months left in the fiscal year, as planned expenditures are fixed and any reduction would directly impact citizen services.
Bar Siman Tov further criticized the government's economic policy, arguing that the basis for calculating these cuts has not been updated to account for the cumulative budget erosion since the war's outbreak. This means effective cuts are significantly larger than stated. He also pointed to increased costs due to inflation, new tenders, and minimum wage adjustments.
He argued that funding security needs by systematically eroding civilian systems and public services through indiscriminate, sweeping cuts demonstrates a lack of a comprehensive view of national resilience. "Israel's resilience is not based on military might alone," he wrote, emphasizing that the home front, public, social, and economic spheres are inseparable from the front lines.
The most severe practical warning concerned mental health services, where cuts would impact resilience centers, staffing, and service expansion efforts necessitated by the war. Plans for hospital protection and adapting infrastructure for an aging population are also expected to be affected. Bar Siman Tov concluded that the proposed cuts present the ministry with an "impossible dilemma" between meeting budget targets and performing core healthcare functions, urging the finance ministry leadership to intervene.