By Petra Vodstrcilova
PRAGUE, June 6 (Reuters) - The Czech government plans to
sell off state health insurers for some 26 billion crowns ($1.65
billion), another step in reforms aimed at cutting waste that
have angered the opposition and the public.
The Czech cabinet is fighting an uphill battle to overhaul
public services it says squander funds by failing to end
legacies like free healthcare and high workplace absenteeism
that gained prominence in decades of communist rule.
Health Minister Tomas Julinek said he wanted to sell 11 of
the country's 12 state health insurers and put the proceeds back
into the health system.
"The general health insurer (VZP), which has 67 percent of
the market, will be a state joint stock company. The others
should be sold," Julinek told Reuters in an interview.
Julinek is highly unpopular -- his support was just 12
percent in a May survey -- as the author of reforms requiring
patients to pay a $1.9 fee for each doctor's visit or drug
prescription, in force since January.
All employees are covered by health insurance with
contributions deducted automatically from wages.
The 10.3 million Czechs claim more sick days and visit
doctors more than most Europeans, and are not used to paying
directly for medical care. The reforms are aimed at cutting
supervised treatment of common ailments like colds and
concentrating on tackling more complicated cases.
Unions have called an hour-long general strike on June 24,
in a rare labour protest in the central European country against
the reforms, which also included a law eliminating state
payments for the first three days of sick leave that was later
struck down by the constitutional court.
FUTURE UNCERTAIN
Health reforms have caused uproar across central Europe. In
Hungary, a failed referendum forced the government to abandon
reforms and lost it a coalition ally. Slovakia's leftist
government cancelled doctors' fees after taking power in 2006.
Because Julinek's plan would have to clear the Czech
parliament, where Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek lacks a full
majority, its future is uncertain.
With only 100 of the chamber's 200 seats, the ruling
coalition has depended on two independents to push through some
measures. But several coalition deputies have increasingly
broken party ranks and voted with the opposition.
"The fragile majority is cracking these days, so far not due
to health. There is a question how much room for reforms there
will be after the (summer) holidays," Julinek said.
Under Julinek's plan, revenue from the sales would be
distributed among newly formed private health insurance accounts
for all Czechs, Julinek said, giving each about 2,500 crowns.
"The privatisation revenue will not go to the state, because
it is not the state who owns (the insurers)," Julinek said.
At present, health insurers are not-for-profit institutions.
After they are prepared for sale, they will be allowed to make
profit, but 85 percent will be returned to clients, he said.
Health spending in the Czech Republic, a European Union
member since 2004, reached 227 billion in 2006, or about 7
percent of overall gross domestic product, below the EU average
of 8.7 percent.
(Writing by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Malcolm Whittaker)
