Health Survey Finds Million Israelis Waited Over Month for Specialist

New Central Bureau of Statistics social-survey data released on July 5 exposed long waits and uneven access in Israel's health system. More than 1 million Israelis aged 20 and older who saw a specialist in 2025 waited over a month, and more than 300,000 waited over three months. The survey also found that 61% of emergency-room visitors said waiting time bothered them, while about 1.2 million Israelis used private medicine, mainly to get earlier appointments. Israel's public medicine remains a national asset, but wartime resilience requires shorter queues, stronger hospitals and fair access across communities.