Health Ministry Data Reveals Wide Gaps in Israeli Healthcare Provider Wait Times
Translated & summarized from Arutz Sheva by baba
Data from Israel's Ministry of Health shows significant wait time disparities for services like speech therapy among HMOs, with Clalit averaging 8.3 months and Leumit 2.4 months. Leumit also reported the lowest rate of justified patient complaints in 2025. The HMO also received high rankings in customer satisfaction and employer desirability.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Clalit HMO members wait 8.3 months for speech therapy, compared to 2.4 months for Leumit members.
- Leumit HMO had the lowest rate of justified patient complaints in 2025.
- Maccabi HMO had the highest rate of justified complaints, nearly four times that of Leumit.
- Wait times for speech therapy vary significantly across Israel's four major HMOs.
- Leumit HMO received top rankings for customer satisfaction and employer desirability.
New data from Israel's Ministry of Health, presented to the Knesset's Health Committee, highlights significant disparities in wait times for essential health services among the country's four major health maintenance organizations (HMOs).
The most striking difference was observed in wait times for speech therapists, with Clalit HMO members facing an average wait of 8.3 months, compared to just 2.4 months for those insured by Leumit HMO. This nearly fourfold difference is particularly impactful for families with young children requiring language and communication development assessments and treatment.
While Leumit offered the shortest wait times across all five professions examined, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social work, speech therapy, and developmental psychology, specific wait times for the other four professions were not detailed for each HMO. Maccabi HMO members waited an average of 4.57 months for a speech therapist, and Meuhedet members waited 4.62 months.
Beyond wait times, the data also revealed differences in patient complaint resolution. For 2025, Leumit HMO had the lowest rate of justified complaints, with 0.38 per 10,000 members. In contrast, Maccabi had the highest rate at 1.47 justified complaints per 10,000 members, nearly four times that of Leumit. Meuhedet had 0.86 and Clalit had 1.1 justified complaints per 10,000 members.
Leumit HMO also received high marks in customer satisfaction and employer rankings. It was ranked first in customer satisfaction among HMOs in 2026 by Midrag and has been the leading health organization in Israel for ten consecutive years according to BDI's ranking of top companies to work for.
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