Recent trends in drug utilization in Israel

There has been a considerable increase in the rate of medicine expenditure and consumption in Israel in the latter half of the 1980s in dollar terms compared to the previous decade both in total and per capita expenditure. At constant medicine prices there has been only a slight increase, reaching an average 9.4% annual growth in per capita consumption in the latter half of the 1980s. From the late 1970s to the late 1980s Israel had one of the highest rates of growth in total expenditure and per capita consumption at constant prices compared to OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The driving forces behind the real growth in overall expenditure continue to be the introduction of new drugs and changes in drug therapy. However, mainly as a result of substantial quantitative growth in per capita consumption in the private pharmacy sector, there was a greater growth in this sector than in Kupat Holim Klalit (Medical Insurance Scheme of the General Federation of Labor). An attempt to break down the aggregate into private pharmacy and Kupat Holim Klalit, according to expenditure, prices and consumption, indicate that although the latter has a much lower per capita expenditure, the price adjusted per capita consumption is similar in both sectors. Price adjusted per capita consumption is well below that of France and Italy, and close to that of the USA, the UK, West Germany and Switzerland. These findings are briefly discussed in terms of demographic differences.