Most people searching for the cost of cataract surgery are not really looking for the price of the surgery. The surgery itself is inside the national health basket. What they are looking for, without always being able to phrase it that way, is how much the upgrade costs — the lens that is supposed to free them from glasses, and the laser the clinic mentioned on the phone.
On this page I explain exactly what the cost is made of, what each health fund covers and what it does not, and which questions to ask before agreeing to a quote. You will not find prices here, and at the end of the page I explain why — it is a deliberate decision and not an evasion.
What you get in the public system
Cataract surgery is an entitlement under the national health basket. It is performed against a commitment form (Form 17) from your health fund, and there is no official numeric visual acuity criterion that triggers the entitlement — the decision belongs to the ophthalmologist, based on the functional impact on daily life.
What is included in that entitlement:
- The operating room and the hospital stay
- The surgeon’s fee
- A standard artificial lens — monofocal
What is not included:
- A toric lens (to correct astigmatism)
- A multifocal lens
- An extended depth of focus lens
- The use of a femtosecond laser
That is the whole picture in one line: the surgery is funded, the upgraded lens is not. Everything else is a detailing of that point.
It is important to understand that a standard monofocal lens is not a poor lens. It gives the best distance visual acuity and the best contrast sensitivity of all lens types. It simply does not give a near focus, so in most cases reading glasses will be needed. I wrote the full comparison between lens types on a separate page: how to choose a lens for cataract surgery.
The lens add-on — what each health fund says
This is the part people find hardest to clarify, which is why I have detailed it. But before the detail, a warning I am asking you to take seriously: supplementary insurance regulations are updated frequently. The information here is correct as of July 2026 and is based on what the funds themselves publish. It is not a substitute for checking directly with your own fund before you commit to anything.
Leumit Silver and Leumit Gold
Here the answer is explicit, and Leumit publishes a dedicated page on exactly this question. The surgery, the operating room, the surgeon’s fee and the ordinary monofocal lens are covered subject to a co-payment that varies by tier, and subject to twelve months of membership seniority.
On upgrading to a premium lens — toric or multifocal — the fund writes explicitly that the member is required to pay at the hospital, and that for this payment there is no entitlement to reimbursement. Not partial, not with a co-payment. This is the clearest situation among the four funds.
Clalit Mushlam and Mushlam Platinum
The model here is essentially identical, and it is stated clearly by Clalit’s own hospitals: the surgery is performed following the physician’s recommendation and subject to a commitment form from the fund, and the payment is for the cost of the special lenses only.
Three practical points about Mushlam:
Since July 2016 this has been a closed list — private surgery cannot be performed with a surgeon who is not under agreement with Clalit Mushlam. The co-payment is a fixed amount per procedure, paid directly to the private hospital, and twelve months of seniority are required.
Platinum, contrary to how it sounds, is not a parallel track to Mushlam but a layer above it. It reduces the co-payment to a proportion of the Mushlam co-payment, subject to a floor and a ceiling — but it does not add entitlements. Anyone expecting Platinum to “cover the lens” is expecting something the product does not do.
One point remains open and I would rather state it than hide it: the Clalit Mushlam reimbursement form includes a category named “lens in cataract surgery”, and requires an original invoice and an operative sheet with the lens sticker. I was unable to locate the clause in the regulations that defines what exactly is reimbursed under that category, if anything. Do not assume there is partial reimbursement, and do not assume there is none — check the specific point.
Maccabi — Sheli, Silver and Gold
The Maccabi regulations verify that members may choose a private physician to perform surgery in a private hospital, provided the physician and the hospital are under agreement with Maccabi, and that the coverage includes the operating surgeon’s services, the operating room, the hospital stay, an anaesthetist and “implants, as required”. The co-payment is derived from the actual cost of the surgery.
A clarifying note that saves confusion: “Magen Zahav” and “Magen Kesef” are not separate tracks — they are the old names of Maccabi Gold and Maccabi Silver, replaced in May 2017 with no change to the content of the coverage.
And as for the lens: I was unable to verify from the regulations themselves what happens with an upgrade to a premium lens. The clause dealing with medical accessories was not accessible in the text I was able to retrieve. The fact that “implants” are covered without an explicit qualification as to lens type is a directional sign only and not an answer. Do not draw conclusions from it, and do not assume that what is true at Leumit is also true here.
Meuhedet Adif and Meuhedet Sia
With Meuhedet Adif it is verified that within the agreement the fund covers the full cost of the surgery, including the surgeon’s fee, the operating room, the hospital stay, an anaesthetist and implants, less a co-payment, subject to twelve months of seniority.
There is also a rule there of fifty percent on implants subject to a ceiling — but it applies only to the out-of-agreement reimbursement track, not to surgery inside the agreement. This is a distinction that is very easy to report incorrectly, and I state it explicitly so that you do not rely on that figure in the wrong context.
As for the lens add-on itself — as with Maccabi, I was unable to verify. The appendix detailing what is funded is not accessible. Regarding Meuhedet Sia I was unable to verify anything.
What this means in practice
If you are with Leumit or Clalit, you have a clear answer. If you are with Maccabi or Meuhedet, do not rely on what is written on the internet — including on this page. Call and ask. Further down the page I have given you the exact wording.
If you are also checking which physicians are under agreement with your fund, I wrote about that separately on the page about eye doctors at Maccabi.
Private health insurance — why it works differently
This is a point that confuses many people, because supplementary insurance through the health fund and commercial private insurance sound similar and are not the same thing at all.
The uniform policy for surgeries and surgery substitutes defines an implant as “any device, natural organ or part of a natural organ, or artificial organ, artificial or natural joint, implanted or fitted in the body of the insured during a surgery covered under the insurance”, excluding prostheses and dental implants.
Two conclusions follow from that definition, and both are practical:
First, an intraocular lens falls within the definition of an implant. There is no exclusion in the policy that removes lenses; the only exclusions are dental. Nor is there any clause that speaks explicitly about “premium lenses”, about multifocal or about toric lenses — those words simply do not appear in the policies I examined.
Second, and this is the heart of the matter — the implant is covered only “during a covered surgery”. There is no standalone implant benefit. Therefore:
- If the entire surgery is performed privately and claimed from the policy, the lens is an implant within a covered surgery, subject to the implant ceiling in the policy.
- If the surgery is performed publicly on Form 17 or through the supplementary plan, there is no covered surgery under the policy — and so the difference you pay at the fund for the lens has nothing to hang on.
This is the structural reason, and not some arbitrary decision by the insurer, that the lens add-on is usually not reimbursed. I emphasise that this is a reading of the policy language. I did not find a regulator’s decision, a court ruling or a supervisor’s determination that establishes how this is applied in practice, and therefore I will not write that insurers “must pay” or “will not pay”. The policies contain a general threshold of medical necessity, and an upgrade intended for independence from glasses sits exactly on that seam.
Two further warnings: older policies from before the unification of policies are not uniform and some include grant clauses that do not exist in the uniform policy, and group policies through an employer differ and are updated at every renewal.
What the private cost is made of
When you receive a quote, that quote is made of items. Some are always in, some are almost always out, and some — and this is the part that surprises people — are simply unclear without asking.
What is usually at the core of the quote: the surgeon’s fee, the operating room and hospital stay, the consumables, and the basic monofocal lens.
What is almost always an add-on:
The upgraded lens. This is the largest variable in the quote, and it is graded: monofocal is the base, then toric, then multifocal, and the combination of toric and multifocal is the most expensive. The difference between the ends of that range is not marginal.
Femtosecond laser. In every source I examined it is a separate add-on and never included. If the quote mentions a laser, ask explicitly whether the figure you were given includes it.
And what you have to ask about because it is not uniform across the market: the tests and measurements before surgery (biometry and lens power calculation, corneal topography, OCT, endothelial cell count), the anaesthetist’s fee, the follow-up visits after surgery, and YAG laser treatment if the capsule becomes opaque later on.
That last item is worth dwelling on. Opacification of the posterior capsule — what is commonly called secondary cataract — appears in a not insignificant proportion of operated patients in the years after surgery, and the treatment for it is YAG laser, a short in-clinic procedure. It is usually handled against a commitment form from the fund, but whether it is inside or outside a private package is a question worth asking in advance rather than two years later.
There is no uniform pricing standard in Israel. Some surgeons include the operating room in the quote up front and some add it separately; some quotes are itemised and some are “starting from” with no breakdown. The practical meaning is that you cannot compare two quotes without taking them apart.
The questions worth asking — word for word
To the health fund:
“I am about to undergo cataract surgery. If I choose a toric or multifocal lens instead of the ordinary lens — is the add-on covered, partially reimbursed, or do I pay it in full out of pocket? If there is reimbursement, what is the ceiling and what do I need to bring in order to claim it?”
To the insurer, if you hold a surgical policy:
“If I have the surgery performed privately and claim from the policy — is the intraocular lens recognised as an implant, and what is the implant ceiling? And if the surgery is performed through the health fund and I pay only the lens difference — is there any coverage for that difference?”
To whoever gave you the quote:
“What exactly is included in this price: operating room, anaesthetist, pre-operative tests, post-operative visits? Which lens does the quote assume? Is laser included or an add-on? And if a correction or additional treatment is needed after the surgery — who pays?”
These three questions, and especially the last one, save most of the misunderstandings I encounter in the clinic.
Why there are no prices here
That is a fair question and it deserves a direct answer.
The price of cataract surgery with a premium lens is not a single number. It depends on the lens chosen, on whether it is one eye or two, on whether a laser is required, and on the specific state of the eye — an eye that previously had laser vision correction, for example, requires entirely different measurements and calculations. A single figure published here would give some readers a false sense of certainty, and would put others off for no reason.
There is a second reason too, less pleasant: price lists go stale. A page publishing outdated sums does more harm than good, because people arrive at the consultation with them and discover they are not relevant.
What will help you is an understanding of the structure — what is in the basket, what is not, what your supplementary plan does, and exactly what to ask. That I have given you here in full.
If you are looking for the equivalent of this page for laser vision correction, I wrote about that separately on the laser eye surgery cost page.
What is worth doing now
Before dealing with numbers at all, another question is worth answering: is a premium lens even suitable for your eye? Not every eye is a candidate for a multifocal lens, and in some situations it will give a worse result than an ordinary lens — not a better one. A patient who pays for an upgrade his eye cannot exploit has made a bad deal twice over.
So the right order is: examination first, then suitability, and only at the end money. I detailed the medical considerations on the lens choice page, and the general explanation of the surgery itself on the cataract surgery page.
I perform cataract surgery at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.
If you are undecided and want a personal assessment before you compare quotes, you are welcome to contact me.
Frequently asked questions
Is cataract surgery covered by the national health basket?
Yes. Cataract surgery is an entitlement under the national health basket and is performed in the public system against a commitment form (Form 17) from your health fund. The coverage includes the operating room, the hospital stay, the surgeon’s fee and a standard monofocal intraocular lens.
Which lenses does the public system provide?
A standard monofocal lens only — a lens with a single focal point. Toric lenses, multifocal lenses and extended depth of focus lenses are defined as premium lenses and sit outside the basket, and so does the use of a femtosecond laser.
Does the supplementary insurance of my health fund cover the upgrade to a premium lens?
With Leumit Silver and Gold the answer is explicit and negative — the fund states that the lens upgrade is paid at the hospital and that there is no entitlement to reimbursement. With Clalit Mushlam the model is that the surgery is funded and the patient pays only the difference for the special lens. For Maccabi and Meuhedet I could not verify the specific clause from the regulations themselves, so you must check directly with your fund before committing to anything.
Does private health insurance reimburse a premium lens?
The uniform policy defines an implant as any device implanted in the body during a surgery covered by the insurance — an intraocular lens falls within that definition. The practical meaning is that if the entire surgery is performed privately and claimed from the policy, the lens is covered as an implant, subject to the implant ceiling. If the surgery is performed publicly on Form 17, there is no covered surgery to attach the lens to. That is the structural reason the lens add-on is usually not reimbursed.
What affects the private cost the most?
The lens type is by far the most significant factor, followed by whether a femtosecond laser is used — which is almost always a separate add-on and not included. The surgeon’s fee, the operating room and the consumables make up the base of the quote.
Why is there no price list here for cataract surgery with a premium lens?
Because there is no single price. The cost depends on the lens chosen, on whether it is one eye or two, on whether a laser is required, and on the specific state of the eye. On top of that, price lists go stale within months and then they do more harm than good. What does help is understanding the structure: what is in the basket, what is not, what your supplementary plan actually does, and exactly what to ask.
