"From the collection surpluses transferred to the Budgets Department, amounting to hundreds of billions, there is not a single penny anywhere for a time of need." With these harsh words, Meir Spiegler, former director general of the National Insurance Institute, currently chairman of the Israel Electric Corporation and deputy chairman of the National Insurance Council, attacked the Ministry of Finance today (Tuesday). According to him, for years the state used the insureds' money to finance its current expenses, and now, if the National Insurance Institute needs the money, it will be forced to conduct negotiations with the Treasury to get back the funds collected from the public.

The remarks were made during a joint meeting held today by the Labor and Welfare Committee and the State Audit Affairs Committee, following the State Comptroller's report published last week. The Comptroller warned that the 2018 long-term care reform is accelerating the depletion rate of the National Insurance Institute's cash reserves, in a way that could mean that as early as 2035, the institution will not be able to meet its obligations to pay long-term care and welfare benefits.

"How many of the long-term care beneficiaries receive income supplements? Rhetorical question. 33%. That means, these are the weakest people in Israeli society. People who cannot make ends meet. The people who are the weakest links. And we commit to being a social state, with mutual guarantee, that helps the needy."

"Where did the growth come from?" Spiegler continued. "From the fact that before that, they were not given what they deserved. Among other things, besides the reform, because they simply put them through a Via Dolorosa. A great many people did not apply at all, because they did not want to deal with the bureaucracy and regulation, the humiliations and the disgrace they go through when people come to their homes."

"There is no comparing the criteria by which eligibility for long-term care is determined between the National Insurance Institute and the health funds. The health funds are a closed economy, financially, they are collapsing anyway. Even if the criteria are equal, they will certainly pile up a thousand and one barricades and a thousand and one difficulties. One thing is being compared here to something completely different, not the same thing. The health funds try to make things burdensome, National Insurance is the opposite. But what do they do? They do everything not to give. Why? Because it costs them money, and they have nowhere to give the money from. Because of their financial situation, they will make it difficult to receive a long-term care allowance, while National Insurance acts to grant the allowance to anyone who is eligible."

"The National Insurance Institute is not a for-profit company. It is a service-oriented company, to grant the residents what they deserve," Spiegler said. "During the coronavirus period, and of course also during the war, foreign long-term care workers did not arrive. What does that mean by law? That whoever employs an Israeli worker or a family member receives another four nursing hours. If we take on average between 10 and 30 nursing hours, that is a magnitude of 25%."

"My father was demented," Spiegler shared. "They come to his house and check, I don't want to tell you what they check. Including diapers, the size of the diapers, what is in the closets, what is inside the baskets, if there is bleeding, without bleeding. We are talking here about our parents, about those who went and built the country, and bore the burden of its development. They do not fly in Concords."

"From the collection surpluses transferred to the Budgets Department, amounting to hundreds of billions, there is not a single penny anywhere for a time of need," Spiegler returned to his attack on the Ministry of Finance. "Because the state budget is in deficit, if the National Insurance Institute requires the money of the insured, the residents, which was transferred to the treasury as part of the collection surpluses, you do not receive them automatically. Just as usually when you lend to someone and ask for it back, you receive it naturally, here you will be forced to enter negotiations with them."

"Have you heard of such a thing?" he wondered. "Money of the residents that goes towards bonds, there is not a single penny of these funds anywhere. They also robbed the insured of about NIS 150 billion that is being ignored. I am saying about NIS 70–something billion regarding decisions related to unemployment, and about NIS 50 billion based on that same National Health Insurance Law, from 1995 to 2015, which the National Insurance Institute paid to hospitals for births instead of the state, as well as burial expenses. Where is this money?"

"They cry that the National Insurance Institute has supposedly entered a deficit of NIS 10 billion," Spiegler continued. "How much did they take under decisions they forced the National Insurance Institute to finance at the expense of the residents? In the year 2025 alone, close to NIS 9 billion. By the way, they treat National Insurance funds as a tax instead of an insurance premium. They treat this money as if it were their own. It needs to be examined whether there is a criminal offense here."

"I am proud that I had the privilege of being a partner to the changes implemented at the National Insurance Institute, for anyone who is entitled to it," Spiegler concluded. "I say every day to the One Above that I am proud that I had the privilege and the ability to be at the National Insurance Institute during that period and to do those things that brought about changes aimed at being decent and fair towards the residents of the State of Israel. Those same people who reached the situation where they are entitled to receive what they were promised throughout their entire lives."