This chapter provides an extended look at health politics and the universal health system based on a compulsory social health insurance in the Czech Republic. It traces the historical development of the Czech healthcare system, characterized by a systemic shift from an insurance system to a fully state-run Soviet Semashko model of healthcare provision. Since the fall of communism in 1989, the Czech healthcare system has undergone significant reforms, including a return to a Bismarckian insurance system and market-oriented reforms in delivery and financing of health services. The post-communist reforms were characterized by the crystallization of the left–right political divide in healthcare policymaking. As the chapter argues, this division became particularly pronounced in the context of reforms introducing user fees for medical services and hospital privatization, both of which were controversial issues, with critics arguing that these reforms posed a major threat to the system’s solidarity.
Chronic heart failure - Impact of the condition on patients and the healthcare system in the Czech Republic: A retrospective cost-of-illness analysis
