Things to have known...

I went down to the National Health Insurance today for the umpteenth time and found out that we are responsible for payments to the National Health Insurance since we entered the country.

Let me re-state. As temporary residents we were not eligible for health insurance until we were in the country for six months. In December, when we were here six months, we got our health insurance. Two weeks later, we got a bill for June through November. Hun?

So I went down there today and found out that as temporary residents, we are liable for payments to the Insurance from when we became residents, even if we were not eligible for the insurance. But, if we incurred health expenses during that time, they can now be reimbursed. Would have been good to know. We got ourselves tourist Insurance which covered every expense we had, except, it's not reimbursable.

So I went to the bank today and Paid 911 NIS for six months of "retroactive" non-insurance. Hasn't anyone in Israel figured out that Insurance is only for a future risk? When I told the guy at National Health Insurance that I felt like he was kicking me in the face when I was down in the mud (I'd been dealing with bureaucracy all day), he told me I was lucky, he's had a few people come in who had been in Israel for two or three years and had to pay that back insurance. I told him that really didn't make me feel better than there were others who were getting screwed more than me. Though, if I read him right, it made him feel better about doing it to me.