“The Health Committee of the Chamber warned the Treasury representatives in the Budgets Department that the disproportionate pressure on privately funded medicine and the recent regulation from 2023 would generate a new branch of surgeries in medical centers abroad that Israeli entrepreneurs will establish, mainly in neighboring and inexpensive countries.” So says Nechama Goldwasser, Chairman of the Health and Long-Term Care Insurance Committee at the Chamber of Insurance Agents. Goldwasser addressed the opening of Hadassah’s new medical center in Limassol, Cyprus: “The state loses far beyond tax revenue. It loses income to the economy, medical knowledge, clinical experience, and opportunities for the development of the next generation of doctors. Every surgery performed overseas is also a medical and economic opportunity that may be lost from the Israeli healthcare system. The danger of pushing out privately funded medicine in such a brutal manner will cost us our health. Currently, there are contacts by Israeli entrepreneurs regarding the opening of medical centers in Poland and India, and that is without yet discussing the issue of what will happen with claims for compensation for surgery performed overseas. Intervention of forced regulation, which produces market failure, will always be solved by entrepreneurs. The question is whether this is the child we prayed for.” Goldwasser warned against an increase in claims for surgeries abroad that will be submitted to insurance companies, and said: “The more the trend of surgeries abroad grows, we will reach a situation where non-arrangement doctors will be able to raise the price of surgery. Such a doctor cannot receive reimbursement for surgery in Israel, but will be able to receive partial reimbursement for surgery abroad. There is great variance in eligibility for surgeries abroad in policies, and not all of them include full choice in the option to undergo surgery abroad.”
Facing Nicosia
On October 15, 2026, the Hadassah Medical Center Cyprus, established in cooperation with a Cypriot entrepreneurial group, was officially inaugurated in Limassol. The center began receiving patients as early as July. According to Hadassah, this is the first medical center outside Israel that bears the name of an Israeli medical center. A variety of medical services are provided at the center, including advanced imaging (MRI and CT), cardiology, neurology, laboratory medicine, specialist clinics, rehabilitation, and preventive medicine. The center employs local teams and doctors with professional support from Hadassah experts from Jerusalem, and enables referral for a second opinion or for complex treatment in the Israeli system. At the same time, plans were approved for the establishment of a hospital in the Nicosia area, which will include inpatient departments, research, teaching, and medical training. According to reports, a 46-bed surgical hospital is planned, with operating rooms and a catheterization lab, and later a campus named Hadassah Health Park on an area of approximately 60 thousand square meters.
