Zeman vetoes amendment to reduce state payments to healthcare sector

President Miloš Zeman vetoed an amendment on Monday to reduce state payments to the healthcare sector this year. The government was hoping to save CZK 14 billion in the state budget with this amendment, but Mr. Zeman has criticised it, saying it will have a negative impact on the quality and availability of healthcare.

Ministers have defended the law, saying that it will not jeopardize care, as public health insurance had a profit of six billion crowns in the first half of this year and account balances of almost 60 billion - much more than was expected in economic forecasts - and that the amendment is set up in such a way that a year-on-year decrease in payments will not be possible. The amendment includes a clause that from 2024, state payments to the healthcare sector should increase in line with inflation and by half of real wage growth.

A coalition majority in the House of Representatives can override a presidential veto, which will likely happen, as Speaker of the Chamber Markéta Pekarová Adamová, Health Ministry spokesperson Ondřej Jakob, and Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura have all stated either to the Czech News Agency or on Twitter.

The state pays insurance premiums from the budget for roughly 5.9 million people, almost 56 percent of the population. These are mostly children, the elderly and the unemployed. These payments make up approximately a quarter of public health insurance revenues while more than half goes towards hospital care.