Zev Chafets, Columnist

Israel's Vaccine Miracle Didn't Happen By Chance

The leader of one of Israel’s four HMOs talks to columnist Zev Chafets about a model other countries could learn from.

January 19, 2021 at 8:19 AM UTC

Zev Chafets is a journalist and author of 14 books. He was a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the founding managing editor of the Jerusalem Report Magazine.

World-beating vaccinator.
Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg

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On the day before Israel reached the 2 million mark for Covid-19 vaccinations, I met with Sigal Regev Rosenberg. An economist by training, Rosenberg is also the CEO of Kupat Holim Meuhedet, one of the four national health maintenance organizations responsible for this world leading achievement. Today, by law, Israel has universal health care and every citizen belongs to an HMO. Regev Rosenberg’s is the third largest, with 1.2 million members. Below is a transcript of our conversation, translated from Hebrew and lightly edited for clarity.

Zev Chafets: You are the only female CEO of the four HMOs.