Health care and the Czech Republic: a country riddled with problems
At the weekend, the Czech government has proposed ways to reduce the growing deficit in public finances. One of the areas to be affected is the health insurance. However, the problems in the Czech health care system are not limited to money - it has been one of the most complex issues Czech governments since the fall of Communism have had to tackle. Tracy Burns spoke with Dr. Martin Jan Stransky, who studied medicine in the USA and runs a health care clinic in Prague, about the various drawbacks in Czech health care and how they can be improved.
"Here the issues are more complex because they come out of a different past which means that people are used to conducting themselves within a health care system as well as a health care system that was based completely on different values. Specifically, there were no supply and demands issues, either from the economic point of view or from the point of view of approach of the physician to health care. This is causing a great deal of strain. Czech citizens are extremely reluctant to consider health care on economic terms. This is one area where they, along with the European tradition in general, feel that the state should quote take care of them. So, the benefits of preventative medicine here are only just beginning to emerge."
So how can these problems be improved?
"It's really a political leadership issue more than anything else. I think the politicians have to get out in front and put forward arguments to the general public as well as to physicians that there are absolutely painless ways which health care can be reformed."
Does the media play a role in health care?
"It's a question of what the powers that be do with the information that is dug up by the media. If it's an issue that affects politics or corruption, it usually ends up at a dead-end because of the fact that there's a dysfunctional legal system."
Are there enough health insurance companies here? Does it work? Is it effective?
"In terms of looking at health care in the Czech Republic on a sort of dollar in to health care out issue, I think it works, overall. I think, in fact, the Czech Republic, if you compare the crowns to the dollar, their morbidity and mortality rate here is essentially just a few percentage points lower than in the United States, so all criticism of health care in the Czech Republic, I think, should sort of be weighed against this factor as well. In terms of the insurance companies themselves, the situation here is disastrous because there are over ten insurance companies for a country that has fewer citizens than does New York City."
