Additional insurance for health care at the ice. The government has not recommended it yet

“We have several people here who want to put their money into health care, but the state does not allow them to do that. It does not make sense to oppose money that does not make the existing system worse, on the contrary, it can only improve it,” said economist Petr Bartoň from DataRun.

economist Dominik Stroukal says that the share of private money in the Czech healthcare sector is among the lowest in the European Union. According to him, by allowing people to legally pay extra for care and doctors offering above the level services will not save the system, but it can help.

“We cannot do without more over-55s working, but this is often not possible without better health. There is no other way to get private money into the health care sector than to allow the public to participate in more expensive care above the level guaranteed by the basic statute,” Stroukal said.

Pavel Hroboň from the Institute of Advance Healthcare Management agrees. They do not believe that this would lead to a decline in the availability of care for those who do not have thousands or tens of thousands of crowns to pay more for better products or services.

“Of course we don’t need quick changes right now, but if we look at things in the long term, injecting part of the money into the system makes sense,” he told Novinkám.

For example, he mentioned innovation and the introduction of newer procedures, which, on the other hand, as a result of “testing” by paying patients, could be cheaper faster and become the standard for other paid services as well.

“Private money will come into the system, the only question is how. It will fill a need for some providers and some patients who want to choose, and at the same time it will be controlled,” he thinks.

He is not worried that the experts would start focusing more on those who would pay, who could take less, because they would still make money for themselves. According to him, the state can effectively regulate payments to doctors.

For the most part, healthcare in the Czech Republic depends on funding from the state, ie health insurance companies. However, their reserves are dwindling in the rush to treat an increasing number of patients. This year, according to estimates, health insurance companies will spend 510 billion on care, as far as 2010 it was half of that.

“We live in a bad socialization in the health care sector. We do not distinguish between those who take care of their health and those who do not, or between good and bad hospitals,” epidemiologist Petr Smejkal criticized the current health care situation in a program on Czech Radio .

Since the inception of the mandate, the Liberal right-wing government has been talking about allowing people to pay more for voluntary extra care and insurance for “better” services.

She also promised this in last year’s updated program statement. However, it is not yet widely reflected in the laws, according to information from Novinek, the parties have not yet found unity and it does not seem that this should change in the last year of the government.

Although government politicians do not insist that someone can make a change to conform to the current law on public health insurance, there is the possibility that additional supplementary insurance would be or payment​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​a implemented partial payment for services. .

Already last year, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) announced that it was not time to introduce a higher participation of residents. “I am from a political party that tried to change this situation many years ago and paid dearly for it. We will not make the same mistake when there is no social support for him,” he said.

Such a thing cannot be expected in the “short term”, as he said at the time. However, the greatest long-term pressure for change comes from the ODS. Senator Roman Kraus (ODS), for example, is trying to legalize that people would not pay the full price at the doctor for better lenses, endoprostheses or even casts, but only the amount it costs more than the basic option. paid by the state.

“This area is not included in the draft amendment (of the Public Health Insurance Act),” said Ondřej Jakob, spokesman for the Ministry of Health.

The only place where the “lighter version” is considered is the restoration of dental fillings. If the patient wants a better quality white filling, which is not covered by the insurance company, he should be able to use the preventive benefits he collected from his insurance company. The amendment takes this into account; if approved.