On December 1, 2016,
HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) against the application of the expensive new health insurance arrangement on Palestinians who recently received or were soon to receive Israeli status – pursuant to the
decision of the Minister of Interior – and with it national health insurance coverage. This group of people were required under the
new health regulations to join the expensive arrangement, although it was intended to provide for people who live in Israel with nothing but stay permits. HaMoked asked the court to order the Ministry of Health to exempt this group from payment under the regulations and to order the HMOs (Kupot Holim) to reimburse those who already paid.
In its
response to the petition, submitted April 6, 2017, the state announced that “it has been decided on an ex gratia basis, with regards to the members of the population concerned… who briefly benefited from the national health insurance services pursuant to the regulations until their status upgrade, that they shall be reimbursed for/relatively exempted from the payment required under the regulations, according to the period of time they were insured”. However, the state still has not formulated a mechanism for refunding the money, and has not clarified how it will be transferred to the insured.
The petition is still pending.
