According to Ministry of Interior regulations, a child born in Israel to one parent who is a resident of the country and one parent who is a foreign national is entitled to status in the country. Unlike children of two parents who are citizens, the Ministry of Interior does not register children with only one resident parent in the population registry automatically. The ministry requires the Israeli parent to prove that his center-of-life was in Israel in the two years preceding the child’s birth. In view of the ministry’s deliberately slow processing of matters related to granting status to foreign spouses and the obstacles it places in the path of Palestinians wishing to register their children in the Israeli population registry, child registration in these cases becomes a protracted and exhausting process, often leaving children without ID numbers and without being registered for years.
The difficulties the Ministry of Interior imposes on child registration have particularly grave repercussions for children’s right to health insurance. Access to this right is regulated by the National Insurance Institute (NII). According to the National Health Insurance Law 5754-1994, every Israeli resident is entitled to health services. The problem results from the fact that these services are provided on the basis of ID numbers, and, as stated, Palestinian children with only one resident parent are registered in the population registry and given ID numbers only after a process that takes years. In 2001, in view of the many cases of infants without health insurance, and following
a petition to the High Court of Justice (HCJ) submitted by HaMoked, the NII agreed to an arrangement whereby it would register the child of an Israeli resident in the health insurance files with a temporary number within seven days of her birth. This temporary number would be used to access the right to health insurance and replaced by the official ID number once the child was registered in the population registry by the Ministry of Interior.
This arrangement was entered on record as a judgment.However, in the first decade of the millennium, the NII continually ate away at the arrangement that was reached before the HCJ. First, it stopped issuing temporary numbers to infants older than a year, even if an application to have them entered into the population registry had been submitted. Then, it began revoking the temporary numbers of infants who had reached the age of one. As a result, many children over the age of one, who are native Israelis and live in Israel with their resident parent, who herself has health insurance, lack basic health insurance.
In view of the large number of claims filed in the courts against the NII, including many by HaMoked, with respect to children who do not receive health services because they are not registered in the population registry, the Labor Court decided to hold a general review on the question of the entitlement to health insurance of children who have yet to be entered into the population registry and have one parent who is a resident of the country.
In this review, HaMoked argued that the children were entitled to health insurance under the National Health Insurance Law which does not make the right to health services subject to registration in the population registry. Moreover, HaMoked argued that the NII’s practices violates both the right to health services, which is a fundamental right as it is included in the right to bodily integrity and to life, as well as the right of Israeli children to equality. In view of the severe violation of children’s rights and the severe and irreversible outcome of denying health insurance, the NII’s policy is neither reasonable nor proportionate. HaMoked added that the violation is quite clear considering the fact that parents and children have no control over the child’s lack of registration - a product of the Ministry of Interior’s conduct. This creates an absurd situation in which a child who lives in Israel with an Israeli parent, who is recognized by the NII as entitled to health services pursuant to her status – is, in practice, not entitled.
In the summations submitted to the Labor Court, the NII argued that children who are more than one year old and who are not registered in the population registry are not “residents of Israel” and therefore, not entitled to health insurance. Despite this, the NII did state that “after it has been made clear that applications to have the children registered are summarily rejected by the Ministry of Interior in cases in which less than two years had passed since the parent returned to Israel” and in view of the recommendation of
the Attorney General to have “administrative coherence”, the validity of the temporary numbers will be extended until the child turns two. If proof is provided that an application to have the child registered had been submitted to the Ministry of Interior and that the processing thereof had extended “due to matters that are unrelated to the resident parent”, the numbers will be extended until the age of 36 months. In view of the change in protocol, the NII asked the claims be dismissed. The parties now await judgment.
HaMoked welcomes the NII’s decision to create “administrative coherence” and extend the validity of the temporary numbers until the age of two, yet, stresses that this is not enough. Children over the age of two, whose registration is delayed, remain without health insurance. Only an arrangement under which any child with one resident parent who is registered with one of the health funds will be entitled to health insurance from birth until such time as her civil status is finalized, without a time limit, will be an appropriate arrangement which is consistent with the National Insurance Law and respects human rights.
