Czech health and insurance glossary: terms in the healthcare system

Most foreigners meet Czech healthcare vocabulary at a reception desk with a queue behind them. The receptionist asks for your kartu pojištěnce and whether you are registrovaný, and each answer is a small piece of paperwork you may have put off for months. The terms below follow a typical patient's path, from insurer to surgery to pharmacy.

This is a language aid, not medical advice. Cover depends on the law and on your insurer.

The insurers

Zdravotní pojišťovna is a health insurance fund. Czechia has a handful, and VZP (Všeobecná zdravotní pojišťovna, the General Health Insurance Fund) is the largest. The others are called zaměstnanecké pojišťovny, employee funds, though any insured person can join them. The pojištěnec is the insured person; the plátce pojistného is whoever pays the premium, whether employer, employee, self-employed person or the state.

Veřejné zdravotní pojištění is the public system. A státní pojištěnec is someone for whom the state pays the premium, such as children and other groups defined by law (as of 2026; check the Ministry of Health). Komerční pojištění is private commercial insurance, which some foreign residents must hold instead of public cover, depending on their residence status. Our guide to how health insurance works for foreigners sorts out who falls where.

Karta pojištěnce is the insurance card. The Evropský průkaz zdravotního pojištění (EHIC) is the European Health Insurance Card, issued by your home fund and valid for necessary care elsewhere in the EU. Číslo pojištěnce is the insurance number, which for Czech citizens is the birth number (rodné číslo); foreign residents may be given a different one.

Primary care

A praktický lékař (general practitioner) is the doctor you register with, and registrace is the registration itself. Most residents register with a GP and a dentist (zubař), and women with a gynaecologist (gynekolog). A pediatr looks after children.

Ordinace is the surgery and ordinační hodiny its consulting hours, posted on the door. Objednání is an appointment. Čekárna is the waiting room, which in many surgeries is the entire queue-management system. Ambulance in a hospital means an outpatient clinic, not a vehicle. A specialista is a specialist, and a doporučení or žádanka is the GP's referral to a specialist or laboratory. Vyšetření is an examination, odběr krve a blood draw.

Pohotovost is out-of-hours emergency care, and lékařská služba první pomoci the on-call service for evenings, weekends and holidays. Záchranná služba is the ambulance service, reached on 155; 112 is the general emergency number (as of 2026; check the official source). Nemocnice is a hospital and fakultní nemocnice a teaching hospital attached to a medical faculty.

See also how to register with a GP and how the system is organised.

Pharmacy and prescriptions

Lékárna is a pharmacy. Recept is a prescription, and most are now electronic, the e-recept: the doctor gives you a code or a printout to present at the pharmacy. Léky na předpis are prescription-only medicines, volně prodejné léky over-the-counter ones. Doplatek is the co-payment, the part of a medicine's or device's price the insurer does not cover. Doctors can specify a generic substitute, and it is worth asking the pharmacist for the cheapest equivalent.

Regulační poplatek is a regulatory fee. Czechia has changed the fees patients pay at surgeries and pharmacies several times; most were abolished, and the main one left is a fee for using the out-of-hours emergency service (pohotovost). Check the Ministry of Health or your insurer for the current position. Some care, such as cosmetic treatment or certain dental work, is not covered and is paid in full. You will hear it called nadstandard, above standard.

Sickness and leave

Nemocenská is sickness benefit. The neschopenka, now an electronic record, is the doctor's certificate of pracovní neschopnost, temporary incapacity for work. Ošetřovné is a benefit for someone caring for a sick child or relative; mateřská and rodičovská are maternity and parental benefits. The details are in sick pay and sick leave and maternity and parental benefits.

Preventivní prohlídka is a preventive check-up, available at intervals set by law. Očkovací průkaz is the vaccination record, zdravotní dokumentace your medical record, and zpráva z vyšetření a report from an examination, which you can request in writing.

Insurance for foreigners

Cizinecké pojištění is insurance for foreign nationals, sold by commercial insurers to satisfy residence-permit requirements. It is not the same as public insurance, and the difference matters once you work for a Czech employer or settle longer. Pojistná smlouva is the contract and pojistná událost an insured event. Výluky are exclusions, the part of any contract worth reading before you sign, and spoluúčast is the share you bear yourself.

The Ministry of the Interior sets the residence-permit requirements, including proof of health insurance, so check its English pages for your category.

Asking in English

Many Prague practices have English-speaking staff, and some say so. If a word in your paperwork is unfamiliar, ask reception to write it down, then look it up on the Ministry of Health site. A translation app will tell you what doplatek means. It will not tell you how much it is.