The Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology

414 Ofra Anson
questioningthe quality of trainingand the competence of immigrants' health
professionals.
The concerns regarding the quality of health care provided by immigrants
coincided with an increase in the share of health expenditure in the GNP and
in unemployment amongphysicians. In 1988, a new licensingpolicy was
launched, first for physicians, and later applied to other health professions
(Bernstein 1997). Yet, in congruence with the centrality of immigration in the
Israeli value system, fully subsidized preparation courses, Hebrew and medical
terminology classes were developed to assist the immigrants to qualify for the
license to practice their profession in their new homeland. Table 23.2 shows that
over 80 percent of the physicians, and even a higher proportion of dentists and
pharmacists (who are required one year of supervised work, but no qualification
examination) obtained a license three to five years after migration, dramatically
increasingthe supply of health care personnel. Moreover, 77 percent of the
physicians, the profession most intensively studied, were employed in their
profession within five years after migration (Bernstein and Shuval 1998), most
of them in tenured or tenure-track, full-time, monthly salaried positions (Nirel
and Nave 1996). It seems, then, that Israeli society consistently gives priority to
pro-immigration values over the value of health and high quality health care.
Table 23.2 Immigration of health professionals, Israel 1989 and 1996
Immigrated during
(Absolute number)
Rate per 1,000
population
1989±95 1988 1996 1988/9 1996
Physicians 14,590 16,777 25,898 3.8 4.7
Dentists 1,574 4,607 7,256 1.1 1.3
Pharmacists 1,606 3,226 4,366 0.7 0.8
Nurses
registered 15,900 23,853 3.6 3.8
practical 11,000 19,536 2.2 2.8
Total 14,341 26,900 43,389
Sources: Ministry of Immigration 1996; Ministry of Health 1996, 1998.
Informal Coping Resources
Health is highly valued in the Israeli society. Traditionally, the maintenance of
health and takingcare of the ill are viewed as religious duties; savinglife is a
religious obligation, and treating and caring for an ill person is allowed even if it
requires work on Sabbath. Physicians are highly esteemed, medicine is fully
trusted, doctors enjoy high prestige and are perceived as omnipotent.
In some respects, it may be argued that Israeli society is a relatively traditional
one. Only about one-fifth of the Israeli population defines itself as completely
secular, another fifth as orthodox, and the rest as religious or traditional (Peres
and Yuchtman-Yaar 1998). This could be one explanation for the high value of
health in the Israeli value system. Symbolically, phrases such as ``let us only be