''It doesn't make sense that Meuhedet, which is 4 times smaller than Kochelit, spends more on marketing''

August 9, 2020   

The four health funds - Clalit, Meuhedet, Leumit and Maccabi - which were mired in heavy deficits long before the coronavirus, spent 132 million shekels on marketing activities in 2019, and defined additional expenses for self-marketing totaling 130 million shekels under a budget item for 'service centers.' This was revealed in the Israel Hayom newspaper. Regular income from National Insurance? Check your eligibility for a monthly pension today The funds are allowed to allocate a specified amount from their budget for advertising and marketing during normal times - which amounts to only 30-40 million shekels. Despite the ban imposed on them by the Ministry of Health last March to transfer insured persons from one to another until September, the funds continued to recruit insured persons. Videos obtained by 'Israel Hayom' show that Meuhedet and Maccabi held performances by Hasidic orchestras on branded stages outside the Corona hotels. Clalit held a virtual show featuring the best singing stars in the Haredi sector on the eve of Lag B'Omer. Behind the performers were posters with instructions on the importance of wearing a mask and maintaining hygiene and distance. According to Clalit, the virtual revelry was a way to convey health information to the public and was not intended to recruit insured persons. A source in the health system explains: "The health funds are allowed by law to spend money on advertising and marketing. But over the years, they have claimed in many cases that this is not advertising and marketing but rather providing information to insured persons. This was also the case when they set up call centers to recruit policyholders. Even if we assume that all expenses are legitimate and on advertising and marketing, information for policyholders must be proportional to the size of the fund. It does not make sense that Meuhedet, which is four times smaller than General, spends more than it. In addition, we can see a rapid increase in expenses on advertising and marketing. From the data disclosed here, we can see that the investment in advertising and marketing is three times the permitted amount, has been increasing over the years and is inversely proportional to the size of the fund, as the source noted. In fact, the small funds spend more than the largest (General) fund on advertising and marketing.

In the ridges. Photo: Courtesy of the photographer

The leader: Meuhedet The leader in spending on marketing in 2019 is the Meuhedet health insurance fund. The fund, which insures about 151% of Israelis, invested 40.7 million shekels on advertising and marketing. Next is Maccabi, which insures about a quarter of the population in Israel, with 38.3 million shekels. Clalit spent about 31 million shekels, and Leumit, which insures less than 101% of Israelis, spent 21.5 million shekels. In total, as mentioned, 132 million shekels. This is an increase compared to 2018, when the funds' expenses on marketing, advertising and recruiting insured people amounted to 120 million shekels and in 2017 - 108 million shekels. In 2020, the Health Fund Supervision Division at the Ministry of Health issued a clarification for them, stating that not including all marketing expenses in financial statements constitutes a criminal offense. Following the directive, the funds added expenses that in previous years were recorded in other budget items. It turned out that they did not report to the Ministry of Health expenses of 73 million shekels in 2018 and 57 million in 2017 that were designated for medical centers. Clalit Health Fund responded: "We operate according to regulatory rules with full transparency and constant audit by the Ministry of Health." Meuhedet said: "The data you have is incorrect." Melomit said: "Investing huge resources in marketing and sales instead of insurees is a waste of public money." Maccabi did not respond.