PM and health insurance companies agree on cost-cutting measures

Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek and health insurance company representatives have reached agreement on a series of cost-cutting measures which should gradually reduce the sector's ten billion crown deficit in spending. The Prime Minister did not say how much money would be saved in this manner or how much the government planned to inject into the cash-strapped health sector next year. Details of the agreement are to be made public after it has been signed on Wednesday.

A recent one day strike by private physicians brought the money crisis in the health sector to a head and resulted in the dismissal of health minister Milada Emmerova. Experts say the crisis cannot be resolved without far-reaching structural changes.