Yashar! believes that a strong society is one that cares for its older generations.
Every person in Israel should have the opportunity to age with dignity, security and independence, while remaining an active, valued and contributing member of their community.
Senior citizens face a complex range of economic, health and social challenges. Addressing them requires a comprehensive, long-term national policy that coordinates the work of all relevant government ministries and provides an integrated response to the needs of Israel’s growing senior population.
Eroding Incomes, Growing Loneliness and a Long-Term Care System at Risk
Senior citizens currently make up approximately 13% of Israel’s population – a proportion that continues to grow as life expectancy increases and medicine advances.
Older Israelis are particularly vulnerable to a number of challenges. Their healthcare needs are often more complex, and many require varying levels of long-term care. They rely heavily on pensions and government benefits while having limited ability to increase their income in the face of a rising cost of living.
Senior citizens are also more vulnerable to fraud and financial exploitation, and many experience loneliness and a lack of social support, with serious consequences for both their physical and mental health.
These challenges are interconnected and require a comprehensive government response.
Today, however, responsibility is divided among multiple government ministries and agencies that do not coordinate sufficiently with one another. As a result, senior citizens and their families are often forced to navigate excessive bureaucracy simply to receive the services and benefits to which they are entitled.
The Yashar! Plan
Yashar! will safeguard every senior citizen’s right to age with dignity.
We will advance a national strategy that puts senior citizens at the center, provides high-quality responses to their needs and promotes healthy and optimal aging.
We will protect pensions and benefits from erosion, ensure that every senior citizen can maintain a dignified standard of living, remove bureaucratic barriers that prevent people from receiving the benefits to which they are entitled, and develop effective solutions to combat loneliness.
Living with Dignity and Economic Security
We will safeguard every senior citizen’s right to live with dignity.
We will increase old-age benefits for low-income seniors, including Holocaust survivors, Olim who worked after making Aliyah but accumulated insufficient pensions, and people who depended on welfare assistance throughout their lives.
At the same time, we will establish a permanent mechanism to preserve the real value of benefits and prevent the erosion of senior citizens’ incomes.
Government agencies, state-owned companies and local authorities will proactively identify and provide benefits to eligible senior citizens, reducing bureaucracy and ensuring that people receive the assistance to which they are entitled without having to fight for it.
Long-Term Care and Healthcare
We will strengthen the stability and long-term sustainability of Israel’s long-term care system.
We will examine the introduction of mandatory long-term care insurance for the entire population in order to ensure that quality care remains available to senior citizens in the future.
As part of a proactive approach to exercising rights, we will ensure that every eligible senior citizen receives the long-term care benefits they need, reducing the financial burden currently placed on families.
We will also make support more accessible to family members caring for seniors who require nursing care or who are experiencing cognitive decline. This will include mental-health support, assistance in coping with medical conditions, and help navigating and accessing available rights and benefits.
Better Healthcare at Home and in the Community
We will ensure high-quality healthcare for senior citizens through both prevention and appropriate treatment.
We will strengthen medical and long-term care services provided at home and in the community and improve continuity of care between hospitals and community healthcare providers.
We will invest in preventive medicine and early diagnosis programs designed to prevent or delay functional and cognitive decline, and ensure that medical conditions associated with aging receive the coordinated systemic response they require.
Strengthening Geriatric and Rehabilitation Medicine
Israel’s geriatric healthcare system must grow together with its aging population.
We will provide incentives for physicians to specialize in geriatric medicine, increase the number of geriatric hospital beds — including rehabilitation beds — and encourage investment in rehabilitation medicine.
We will also examine expanding the range of benefits and services available to senior citizens who require assistance.
Advanced technologies, including telemedicine, will be used more extensively to make healthcare more accessible to senior citizens in their own homes.
We will also amend the law so that senior citizens are not required to repeatedly renew advance medical directives concerning life-prolonging treatment.
Combating Loneliness
Loneliness is one of the most serious threats to the health and quality of life of senior citizens.
We will launch a national initiative to identify and combat loneliness through dedicated programs operated by local authorities.
Each municipality will map its senior population, identify individuals at greater risk of social isolation, proactively reach out to them and provide solutions tailored to their individual circumstances and needs.
A National Plan for Optimal Aging
We will introduce a comprehensive, multi-year national plan for Israel’s senior population, based on recommendations of the State Comptroller and relevant government decisions.
The plan will address the full range of needs facing senior citizens and coordinate the work of all relevant ministries, government agencies and public bodies.
It will establish measurable objectives, clear indicators of success, a defined division of responsibility among implementing agencies, and the resources required to achieve its goals.
A National Council for Senior Citizens
We will establish a National Council for Senior Citizens as the central government body responsible for developing and coordinating national policy on aging.
The Council will include representatives from all relevant government ministries and public bodies and will have three central responsibilities:
Comprehensive policy: Developing coordinated government policy that connects the work of different ministries and addresses the full range of needs of senior citizens.
National knowledge center: Bringing together Israel’s leading research institutions and serving as a central repository and aggregator of research and data on aging and senior citizens.
Cost-of-living monitoring: Monitoring the specific impact of the cost of living on senior citizens and developing policies to prevent the erosion of their income and purchasing power.
Employment, Volunteering and Life After Retirement
Retirement should not mean withdrawing from society.
We will develop retirement-preparation programs and expand opportunities for appropriate employment and volunteering, allowing senior citizens to continue contributing their professional expertise and life experience while strengthening their connection to their communities.
We will also examine measures that will allow Israelis over the age of 67 to continue working for as long as they choose and their health allows.
National Service, Preferred Work and Intergenerational Volunteering
We will create community frameworks that bring senior citizens together with young people and volunteers.
We will work to include certain jobs serving senior citizens within Israel’s Preferred Work program for discharged soldiers and within national and civil service frameworks.
These initiatives will expand the social services available to older Israelis while simultaneously reducing loneliness and strengthening connections between generations.
Protecting Senior Citizens from Violence, Exploitation and Fraud
Senior citizens deserve stronger protection from abuse and exploitation.
We will strengthen oversight of individuals holding power of attorney for senior citizens who lack cognitive capacity, in order to prevent financial and other forms of exploitation.
We will establish an emergency support framework for senior victims of crime so that those harmed by family members or caregivers can report abuse without fearing that they will be left without the care they depend on.
We will impose stronger penalties for financial scams targeting senior citizens and increase resources devoted to investigation and enforcement.
We will also promote mechanisms allowing large credit-card transactions to be temporarily delayed when fraud is suspected, accompanied by direct contact with the customer to help prevent scams before money is transferred.
Safe and Dignified Housing
Every senior citizen deserves safe, appropriate and dignified housing.
We will strengthen oversight and enforcement of conditions in regulated residential facilities, including nursing homes.
We will also establish binding standards for senior housing frameworks that are currently insufficiently regulated, ensuring that every resident receives the services and rights to which they are entitled and lives in appropriate conditions — including access to adequate protection during emergencies.
We will also regulate and expand supported living at home, enabling senior citizens to remain in their own homes while receiving the professional services, assistance and care they need within a supervised and regulated framework.
Access to Rights and Services — in Everyday Life and Emergencies
We will amend legislation to ensure maximum accessibility to polling stations for senior citizens in both national and local elections, with particular attention to assisted-living facilities and nursing homes.
Essential services — including banks, insurance companies and health funds — will be required to provide accessible and appropriately adapted service to senior citizens.
We will reduce bureaucracy through integrated One-Stop Shop service centers, bringing the services and assistance senior citizens need together in one place.
Dedicated senior-citizen units will also be established within local authorities to ensure that municipal services provide high-quality, accessible and age-appropriate support.
Protecting Senior Citizens During Emergencies
The needs of senior citizens must be incorporated into national and local emergency planning.
We will ensure that the Home Front Command and local authorities are prepared to evacuate senior citizens safely when necessary, including maintaining continuity of medical treatment and providing mental-health support.
Dedicated services will also be developed for senior citizens who remain in their homes during emergencies.
Aging with Dignity
A society is measured not only by how it prepares its young people for the future, but also by how it treats those who helped build its present.
Israel’s senior citizens have spent their lives building families, communities, businesses and institutions, serving the country and contributing to Israeli society.
They deserve more than a collection of benefits and services scattered across government agencies. They deserve a system that sees the whole person.
Yashar! will build a national policy that enables every Israeli to age with dignity, economic security, quality healthcare, independence and community — and to remain an active and valued part of Israeli society.
