For many olim, navigating Israel’s healthcare system can be one of the most daunting aspects of adjusting to life here. The combination of language barriers, bureaucracy, and cultural differences can make even routine appointments overwhelming. Last week I shared some humorous and frustrating stories from olim dealing with these challenges. For Batsheva, a young woman living with a complex chronic illness, these challenges are often magnified.
Early life and aliyah
Batsheva, originally from America, has been living in Israel with her family since she was 12 years old. She loves art, being in nature, and spending time with her family and cat. Now 26 years old and living with a complex chronic illness, she has firsthand experience navigating Israel's healthcare system and describes both its perks and challenges. Motivated by her journey and her desire to help others, she hopes to become a patient advocate or case manager - a path she has already begun - helping others feel less alone in their own healthcare struggles.
Language and communication barriers
Although she speaks Hebrew well and has a strong background in the medical field, the system often feels like jumping through endless hoops. Between Bituach Leumi bureaucracy, rushed appointments, and doctors who sometimes lack patience or communication skills, she has to fight constantly to be heard. At times, the language barrier - compounded by medical jargon - has left her feeling frustrated and overlooked.
Even after 14 years in Israel, Batsheva admits her Hebrew isn’t perfect, something that becomes especially difficult when she is anxious, tired, or flustered. Missing a single word or phrase can mean leaving an appointment confused and overwhelmed. With her complex medical history, she often has many questions, but trying to convey them in a short appointment, in a second language, can be daunting. “Even if your Hebrew is quite good,” she says, “if you don’t know a certain word, the doctors often don’t have patience for you or don’t take you seriously.”
Batsheva points out how challenging it is to live with a chronic illness and to navigate healthcare even in your native language - imagine how much harder it is in another language.
Often, doctor appointments here last only 10–15 minutes after months of waiting - so trying to condense years of medical history into medical Hebrew in a short time frame can feel impossible. It becomes even more complicated when the doctors themselves are not native speakers of either Hebrew or English. This can create a big disconnect, said Batsheva, and make you more nervous.
“There’s a lot of fear when you go into a doctor’s office that they might not understand her or her medical complexity,” she explains. “Every time I go to the doctor, I’m riddled with fear: what if they don’t understand what I’m trying to say or my complex case?”
Difficult medical experiences
Batsheva recalled her first biopsy as being particularly challenging. She tried to explain to the doctor that she had post-trauma and was therefore allowed to have her mother in the room with her. But since she was rather flustered, she struggled to express herself in Hebrew, and the doctor, who was Russian, couldn’t understand her, making her even more nervous. The whole experience “was very scary and anxiety-inducing,” recounted Batsheva. “At the end of the day this is a person with a giant needle who’s coming towards you.”
Miscommunication has also extended to test results. Once she discovered, only years later, when rereading her medical documents, that an old test had revealed a small brain cyst. No doctor had ever explained these results to her. Luckily, the cyst turned out to be quite common and benign, but the fact that no one had told her this was concerning.
She’s also had several experiences where doctors didn’t explain what they were doing in either language, wouldn’t allow questions, or wrote something different than what they had said. One doctor even injected her with something six years ago— to this day, she still doesn’t know what it was.
Moments of humor
It’s not all bad though! Language barriers often provide humorous anecdotes. Batsheva recounted some of the funny or strange things that Israeli doctors have said in English. Once, she told her doctor that she’s a horse rider, as they thought she had something wrong with her spine because it hurt her to ride horses. The doctor looked at her bemused and declared “But you can’t get hurt riding a horse. I had a horse fall on me, and I’m fine!” Clearly, there had been some misunderstanding.
Endless bureaucracy
Beyond the medical challenges, bureaucracy adds another layer of frustration. Currently, Batsheva is trying to access hydrotherapy, a process she describes as overly complicated and nonsensical. To get in touch with a physiotherapist, she must first call the moked, who then has to send an email to someone else, which gets sent to “Santa Claus.” Often, her paperwork is lost, denied, or sent to the wrong person. On top of this, secretaries are often absent, pass her along to someone else, or insist that only one specific person can help - someone who, inevitably, is never there. These experiences leave her feeling anxious, dismissed, and exhausted.
Choosing to stay
Considering the challenges she has faced, people sometimes ask her why she made aliyah or if she would ever consider moving back to the US. Yet, in our conversation it was clear that Batsheva maintains perspective and related that she is happy living in Israel and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Having made aliyah at a young age, most of her medical journey has been here.
“Every place has its flaws,” she pointed out. In Israel, she benefits from socialized medicine and access to world-class specialists, particularly for chronic illnesses. While the system can be chaotic and overwhelming, she acknowledges that in many countries she would either not have access to this care or would be buried in debt. Also, she added, since she is currently unemployed, many countries abroad probably would not accept her.
Living here also provides her with a degree of independence that she would not have in the US. Here, she can travel around on her own, and there are a lot of opportunities for young people. Most importantly, she has access to specialized healthcare that enables her to fully embrace and enjoy all the wonderful places and experiences this country offers.
Patient advocacy
Batsheva is also passionate about patient advocacy and using her experiences to help others. For example, she once helped a woman with extreme PTSD who needed to undergo a procedure under anesthesia. Batsheva translated for her at her doctor's appointments and also got special permission to come with her into the room to hold her hand while she went under, ensuring that the woman felt supported every step of the way.