Česká pojišťovna insurer to enter Czech health care

Prague, Nov 5 (CTK) - Ceska pojistovna (CP) insurance company, co-owned by
the richest Czech Petr Kellner, wants to enter the Czech health care sector
and offer health insurance as of January 2009, the daily Hospodarske noviny
(HN) writes Wednesday.

CP has not yet obtained the necessary licence from the Health Ministry, but
the application is being processed smoothly, the ministry's spokesman Tomas
Cikrt told the paper.

CP has already started addressing general practitioners and paediatricians
with an offer of cooperation, including a price list for their services
covered from the standard health insurance.

The insurer considers the doctors crucial allies who can help it gain
clients. It offers doctors a financial reward for each patient who joins it.

The fees in the price list are not very different from the standard offered
by present Czech health insurance companies, but CP may offer its clients
other services, such as extra commercial health insurance or health
insurance combined with life, accident or travel insurance, the paper
writes.

CP is the biggest insurer in the Czech Republic.

HN says Appian Group that originally planned to start a health insurance
company has decided not to establish it over fears that the planned health
reform will not be pushed through.

Appian Group filed the application needed to establish a health insurer two
months ago, but it has withdrawn it later.

The group expected the state to sell some minor health insurers as
originally planned, but now it seems that privatisation will not be pushed
through, the paper says.

CP must gain 50,000 clients as a health insurer within 12 months otherwise
it will have to return the licence.

Czech started to pay regulatory fees for some health services, such as
visits to their doctors and hospital stays, in January 2008. However, the
step, pushed through by Health Minister Tomas Julinek (Civic Democrats,
ODS), has been extremely unpopular.

The opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) who crushed the ODS in the recent
regional and Senate elections based their campaign on their fight against
the regulatory fees.

The ODS's government coalition partners, the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL)
and the Greens (SZ), have been critical of some of Julinek's plans, too.
Moreover, many in the ODS call for Julinek's dismissal and a government
reshuffle is planned in near future as a result of the coalition's defeat
in the October regional and Senate elections.

Despite unclarities over the health reform's future, the conditions for the
entry of a big company into the health care sector are very good in the
Czech Republic, HN writes.