According to Dr. Filc, in its early years, Israel’s dominant ideology led to public provision of health care for all Jewish citizens-regardless of their age, income, or ability to pay. However, the system has shifted in recent decades, becoming increasingly privatized and market-based. In a familiar paradox, the wealthy, the young, and the healthy have relatively easy access to health care, and the poor, the old, and the very sick confront increasing obstacles to medical treatment.

In Circles of Exclusion, Dr. Dani Filc, a physician and human rights activist, forcefully argues that in present-day Israel, equal access to health care is thwarted by a government that does not extend an equal level of commitment to the well-being of all residents of Israel, whether Jewish, Israeli Palestinians, migrant workers, or Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

Join us for a discussion of what the right to health means in Israel today, and what can be learned from this analysis for other countries, including the US.

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Circles of Exclusion is published by Cornell University Press as part of their Culture and Politics of Health Care Work book series and includes a forward by Quentin Young, MD, CEO for Physicians for a National Health Program. It has been praised by E. Richard Brown, Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, as an “intimate and perceptive analysis of the Israeli health care system (that) helps us understand Israeli medical care and society and illuminates the mechanisms of belonging and exclusion prevalent in all societies. Its insights offer lessons for health care reform in any country, including reforms of American health care.”

To purchase the book, please visit The Cornell University Press website.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is an independent non-governmental organization based in Tel Aviv and is a member of the International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations. Visit their website for more information on their work.