Prague, Jan 30 (CTK) – The Czech government approved on Monday a regular indexation of the health insurance premium paid for the state insured, such as children, pensioners and the unemployed, Health Minister Miloslav Ludvik has said.
The state will yearly add 3.5 billion crowns to the system for three years.
The indexation in 2019 and 2020 will be secured by an amendment to the respective law that parliament is yet to pass. Next year, the health insurance premium for the state insured will be raised through a government order.
Ludvik (Social Democrats, CSSD) and Finance Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) agreed on the rise in the state health insurance payments in early January.
The Health Ministry originally proposed that the state health insurance payments be increased by 4.3 billion, 3.6 billion and 3.8 billion in the following three years. The final sum of 3.5 billion is a compromise that Ludvik and Babis achieved.
The proposal for the health insurance indexation was submitted by Ludvik’s predecessor in office, Svatopluk Nemecek (CSSD), but the cabinet interrupted a debate on it since Babis opposed the draft.
Moreover, an amendment to the health insurance law, which the government approved on Monday, would introduce lower limits of extra cash payments for (prescribed) medicines for pensioners and children.
The Chamber of Deputies is yet to assess the amendment.
If it took effect, the annual limits for children under 18 and the elderly over 65 would decrease from the current 2500 to 1000 crowns and to mere 500 crowns for pensioners over 70.
If the sum paid extra for medicines exceeded the limit, health insurance companies return the money above the limit to the insured.
The Confederation of Industry and the Union of Employers’ Associations do not agree with the lower limits for some groups. They say they consider it an unsystemic and populist gesture.
