Litzman Predicts Free Dental Care To Age 18 by 2016

Israel—In four years, everyone up to the age of 18 will be entitled to free basic dental care from their health fund, Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman predicted on Tuesday at the convention of the National Council for the Child at Beersheba’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Litzman has also said he would institute basic dental care for the elderly.

At present, children up to the age of 12 get basic dental care in exchange for nominal fees at their health fund’s dental clinics or outside clinics contracted to do the work; soon this will be expanded to age 14.

But while Litzman has in the past two years declared the program “great success,” there has been criticism of it from senior dentists in academia, arguing that there is no independent supervision aside from a handful of ministry officials. [Source]