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Current AffairsLobbying continues to suffer poor reputation in the Czech Rep

The practice of lobbying has long been accepted as an effective if sometimes controversial part of the modern political process, with no shortage of lobby groups everywhere trying to influence government policy and legislation. But in formerly communist countries it is still relatively new - and not without its detractors. Lobbying here is still widely associated with corruption in the public eye.  More

Current AffairsEnd of free health care

The Czech health care system guarantees patients, in return for compulsory monthly health insurance payments, free health care. The insurance companies are then obliged to pay doctors. But this nearly always involves a delay. This permanent cash-flow bottleneck has led dentists to lose their tempers. They are now threatening to make patients pay for dental treatment in cash.  More

NewsCzech dentists threaten to become independent from insurance companies

Current AffairsNew book highlights lack of transparency during 1990s' privatisation process

Anyone living in the Czech Republic in the 1990s will remember how the business world seemed to reel from one financial scandal to another, as the country grappled with the difficult process of post-communist privatisation. Now, a new study has been released, which looks at some of the successes and failures of this turbulent period in Czech history.  More

Current AffairsGovernment turns to World Bank for assistance in health care system reform

More and more question marks are hanging over the future of Health Minister Marie Souckova and her proposed reform of the health care sector. According to observers, the former protégée of Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla is losing the support of her colleagues in government and the Prime Minister himself. The government's scepticism of Ms Souckova's capability to carry out a successful reform of the health care system is so strong, that the cabinet has turned to the World Bank for help in designing a viable system of financing of the health care system.  More

Talking PointHow are ambulatory physicians and smaller health insurance companies faring under the current Czech health care system?

At the beginning of the year, the majority of the Czech ambulatory services, some 22,000 health care professionals, closed their doors to patients and customers for an hour, to protest against the government's failure to meet their demands during its reform of the health care sector. The Czech Coalition of Ambulatory Physicians and the Union of Health Insurance Companies say since their protest act, neither the government, nor Health Minister Marie Souckova, have taken steps to consider the needs of the ambulatory services and health insurance companies in their reform plans. In this week's Talking Point, Dita Asiedu speaks with Jaromir Gajdacek from the Union of Health Insurance Companies, and gynaecologist and obstetrician Dr. Vladimir Dvorak, from the Coalition of Ambulatory Physicians after a two-day conference that was held recently to discuss their state in the current health care system:  More

Current AffairsGovernment opts to help health insurance companies preceding important reforms

The Czech government has taken an important step in helping the country's troubled health insurers, including the largest Vseobecna Zdravotni Pojistovna, the VZP, by ordering the state consolidation agency to take over three billion crowns of bad debts. Insurers, including the VZP, are in need of the financial support to be able to pay out their claims on time - after being caught in a vicious cycle. Each year they miss billions of crowns owed by Czech firms and members of the public chronically neglecting to pay...  More

Current AffairsMinistry of Labour and Social Affairs proposes reform of health insurance system

The Czech social welfare and health insurance systems are expected to undergo major changes. The government has been finalising a draft of a major fiscal reform aimed at reducing the growing public finance deficit, including large cuts in the social sphere. The proposed measures, including shifting a greater part of the cost on the employers, however, are not without controversy.  More