Oh, but that's such a minor expense I don't consider it at all. It's an extra 10$ a month for the absolute majority. Top insurance is about 25$ a month. Practically negligible for the absolute majority of people and nothing like the hundreds of dollars a month most people pay in the US.
Also, it's not "private" insurance in any meaningful sense. It's out of pocket adjustments for exactly the same services. This is what I was alluding to.
I'm assuming 10$/month you're talking about the supplementary insurance like "mashlim" that 90% of the people with reasonable income do. The article also says that 53% of the higher income group also have private insurance, which I'm sure is more expensive than that. (the article is from a few years ago so things might have changed since; I don't know). But I agree that most people probably don't need private insurance.
Also to make things clear, when you say people in the US pay hundreds of dollars a month, that's also true for many Israelis. The public insurance is not free if you have a job. The more you make the more you pay. If you work in tech it's likely you're also paying hundreds of dollars a month. (don't get me wrong, I think this system makes sense, it's the same as income taxes). The situation in the US isn't great but it's been much better in the last decade. For example, I live in Massachusetts and everyone in the state is required to have health insurance. If you're low income then you get your insurance from the state.
Fair enough. I'm glad more states are following suit.
Both of us appear to understand the differences between the systems and so I don't think we should be bogged down with semantics. Israel has a single-payer public healthcare system, almost entirely paid for by taxes, which is utilized by a large majority of the population.
To quote for the non-Hebrew readers: "83% of the people paid for extra insurance in addition to what they get from the government"