A huge battle has been going on between the health funds in recent days, with the deadline for the transition between the funds for the current quarter in the background.
Recently, the option to choose between the funds has become easy and fast, which has naturally created intense competition in the industry. Naturally, as the transition day approaches, each fund tries to attract customers to its side, through media campaigns - including in the Haredi media - and through agents operating in the sector.
Last month, following a directive from the Ministry of Health regarding the redistribution of the information budget and the marketing budget, a problem arose for the health insurance funds, and they transferred the advertising budgets mainly to the local press - in the general media as well as in the haredi media. According to those directives, advertisements must state the name of the local branch, including a description of the services it provides.
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Sources in the Bnei Torah movement are trying to attribute the change in advertising policy to the newspaper Hapeles. Their theory is that the health insurance funds found themselves in a dilemma, since if it were published in the haredi dailies, they would not be able to skip Hapeles, and therefore the decision was made not to publish in the dailies at all. The same sources go on to describe the suffering the newspaper is going through, due to pressure from Yated Ne'eman and the senior figures behind it. This is, they say, "a cartel that almost all the advertising companies in the country have formed against it.".
Yated Ne'eman does not respond to arguments of this type, but if they did, they would probably explain that, as with everything, there are market forces: the Lithuanian public, for the most part, obeys the instructions of the Grand Rabbi Shteinman and the Grand Rabbi Kanievsky, who have already expressed their opinion, in the past, in a decisive manner, against the newspaper 'Hapeles', so that cooperation by companies with the daily will lead, automatically and without even having to say it, to a boycott of the companies by the majority of the Lithuanian public.
In any case, the 'Bnei Torah' camp decided to take action and prove their power on the ground. According to them, "If the question of the number of readers of the newspaper Hapeles is not clear and cannot be proven with numbers, the question of the number of voters for the Bnei Torah-Etz party in the municipal elections is quite clear. According to data from the Central Elections Committee in Jerusalem, 7,530 people voted for the Etz list, 2,984 in Modi'in Illit, and 4,880 in Bnei Brak - these are the voters the Friends of Hapeles Committee is trying to unite into a consumer force against companies in the economy, banks, credit companies, and more.".
In this context, it should be noted that these numbers include voters who voted for the party from among the Arabs of East Jerusalem, working ultra-Orthodox Likud members in Bnei Brak, and various Hasidic groups in Jerusalem who voted for the Bnei Torah party, as part of an agreement that included the coronation of Nir Barkat as mayor of Jerusalem.
To prove their strength, the Peles supporters decided to establish the "Friends of the Peles Committee," which would unite the economic power of Bnei Torah party voters and newspaper subscribers. Those behind the committee admit that no rabbi ordered them to act the way they do, but for them, "this is the need of the hour.".
""We are customers of banks, credit companies, health funds, and subscribers only to the Hapeles newspaper, and we deserve to receive the information and promotions like subscribers to any other newspaper," they say. "The fight here is not about a view, but a fight for the basic right to receive service from companies that benefit from our money.".
In between, they admit that among their goals is a demand that "if it is not possible for companies to advertise in Hafels due to fear of terrorism and the like, they should not advertise in either Beited or Hafels. Advertising only in Beited harms us. Meuhedet and Leumit have not advertised in either Hafels or Beited for a long time. Therefore, we are busy convincing thousands of customers to defect from Maccabi and Clalit to Meuhedet and Leumit.".
The next fight, they say, is to get thousands of customers to switch to the bank they are negotiating with. "We will not let up until the advertising companies that are creating the boycott realize their mistake," they promise.
To the question, do they not understand that the advertising companies cannot advertise, when in the background there are the letters of the Grail Steinman and the Grail Kanievsky against advertising in 'Hapeles' - they respond that even when the Grail Elyashiv zt"l came out against a family newspaper, the companies continued to advertise in the newspaper.
But the other side doesn't sit around and waste their time reading a newspaper either. Key figures in the Lithuanian public, who express outrage that they believe the United Health Fund has taken sides in the Lithuanian struggle, have formed a parallel committee, accusing the fund of "cooperating, in exchange for payment, with the activities of the newspaper 'Hapeles' to transfer customers from other funds." It is important to note that in a conversation with a senior official at Degel HaTorah, he makes it clear that the United Health Fund completely denies such cooperation - and that he also believes it. On the other hand, he says, he can understand those who want to collect on the health funds that were damaged by the 'Bnei Torah' move - the 'Maccabi' and 'Clalit' health funds.
Under the name 'Committee for the Honor of Our Lords', these elements began feverish activity, when a phone call reached the telephones of many homes in the Lithuanian neighborhoods with instructions to go to the fund, with the recommended destination - the 'Maccabi' health fund.
And this is the language of the recorded message:
""A person who holds a credit card can go to any Maccabi branch with a cash register ID and a credit card. In order to transfer, one must act in one of two ways: one must go to the postal bank with an ID card supplement in which the children appear, or alternatively, the woman must go to the health fund branch with her identification card. The last date for transferring - tomorrow, Thursday. Together we will be able to sanctify the name of God and show that those who support and walk with the great men of Israel, the public returns to them in double. Together we will strengthen the fund that was damaged.".
