Cabinet Approves Expansion of Free Dental Care Provided to Children up to
Age 12
(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

The Cabinet today (Sunday, 17 June 2012), unanimously approved expanding the
free dental care provided to children up to age 12. Until now free care was
only up to age 10. Expanding the coverage will allow another 267,000
children to enjoy a range of free dental treatment. The overall number of
children eligible for such care will stand at approximately 1.5 million.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked to enable private dentists to
provide free care as well and not only via the health funds as has been the
case up to now. The Prime Minister said that approving the plan is a welcome
step that will save hundreds and perhaps thousands of shekels per annum for
the parents of small children. "This is a social step of the first order and
an additional component of the Government's policy of lowering the cost of
living. This plan joins the saving of hundreds of shekels a month thanks to
the reform of the cellular phone market, the hundreds of shekels in tax
credit points for working parents of small children and at least NIS 800 a
month thanks to free education up to age 3. Dental treatments that
previously cost huge sums are now free and our hand I stretched out to
continue expanding the coverage," the Prime Minister said.

Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman praised the approval of the plan and
said, "Dental care reform has led to social justice for Israeli children.
Tens of thousands of children will continue to receive free dental care as
part of the health basket thanks to this move and we will continue to
advance the other stages of the reform."

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said, "This is an important step for our
children's health. As of today, we have expanded the health basket and it
also includes dental care for children up to age 12. This is part of the
Government's objective to ease conditions for the middle class and the lower
strata which, up until today, were compelled to pay considerable sums for
dental care."

The dental treatments currently covered by the health basket include first
aid, examinations, x-rays, removing plaque, fillings, reconstructions,
crowns, extractions, root canal, etc. In 2011, the state financed over two
million free treatments.