Czech healthcare fees to be re-submitted to Constitutional Court

2010-01-13

The Regions Association of the Czech Republic is likely to approach the country’s Constitutional Court to ask for a review of regulatory healthcare fees. This was announced by Michal Hasek, the Association’s chairman and the governor of the South Moravia region, who was quoted by Czech television. The discussion about healthcare fees began after the Czech Ministry of Internal Affairs prevented fees from being covered from regional budgets by a number of Czech regional authorities. The Constitutional Court had previously issued a ruling on regulatory fees in 2008, confirming their compliance with the Czech constitution. The regions want the Court to reconsider this matter because they believe that the fees have not had an appropriate regulatory effect on the healthcare system.
The regulatory fees were introduced in 2008. Czech patients pay for visits to surgeries, prescriptions, emergency visits and hospital stays. Health insurance companies reimburse their customers after the amount paid by a given patient has reached CZK 5,000 (€191) per year, or, in the case of children and the elderly, CZK 2,500 (€95) per year.