In this article, we dive deeper into the topic of health insurance (medical insurance) in the Czech Republic. We go through everything from what is the difference between public and private insurance to what are the available options, advantages and disadvantages, prices to who qualifies for which.
Two types of health insurance in the Czech Republic
We have worked with over 19 000 clients from over 100 different countries of the World and this part is the most confusing for most of them – what is the difference between the public insurance and private health insurance in the Czech Republic! Usually the first thing that pops in mind if someone says “Czech Health Insurance” is VZP. A lot of people think that VZP is the only insurance option in the Czech Republic. Not only it is far from the truth, VZP might also not be the best fit for everyone. Let’s dig a bit deeper together.
Public Health Insurance in the Czech Republic
Public health insurance is the type of insurance Czech citizens have. Generally speaking, it covers everything everywhere. If you get a flu, get hit by a tram, have pre-existing conditions, diabetes or seven types of cancer at the same time, you will generally be treated in any hospital in the Czech Republic for free. There might be some exceptions (i.e. dental care coverage is limited, some private clinics might not accept the public insurance) but generally everything is covered.
Public Health Insurance for Czech citizens
Czech citizens must be registered in the public health insurance system from birth until they die. Kids/students are generally paid for by the government, adults contribute themselves either by making monthly payments (as self-employed) or by getting health insurance deducted from their monthly salaries (employees). In case of official unemployment (meaning you get registered with the Labour Office as unemployed), the government pays for you again. The same goes for retired people (the government pays).
Public Health Insurance for foreigners in the Czech Republic
Foreigners in the Czech Republic must also be insured during their whole stay in the Czech Republic (meaning there should not be a single day when you, as a foreigner, do not have health insurance coverage).
Foreigners can generally only access the public Czech health insurance only if they are employed (all nationalities) or self-employed (EU citizens and citizens of the US, Turkey, Japan, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Tunisia, Syria, Mongolia and Bosnia).
In all other situations, you might need to get a private health insurance (see below).
How does the public health insurance work in the Czech Republic
If you are employed in the Czech Republic (full-time employment), your employer automatically deducts the health insurance from your gross salary (+ adds something extra from their side). This means you do not have to do anything special to get the insurance. Once you start working, your employer registers you with one of the public health insurance companies and start sending the relevant money to the insurance company. You should also receive the health insurance card directly from your employer.
The Czech public health insurance card looks like this:
Once you get this card, you can basically go to any doctor/hospital with any issue and you will be treated, in most cases also for free.
Just mind that the “full coverage” only applies in the Czech Republic. You might not be covered at all, or only in emergency cases, if you travel abroad.
Public Health Insurance companies in the Czech Republic
Despite the common opinion (and VZP supporting this idea), Všeobecná Zdravotní Pojišťovna (VZP) is not the only available public health insurance company on the market. It is also not the one you have to go with.
There are other public health insurance companies in the Czech Republic which offer exactly the same coverage (because that is given by the law) and often way better customer service.
We generally recommend Oborová Zdravotní Pojišťovna (OZP) but you can also get Vojenská Zdravotní Pojišťovna (VoZP), Česká Průmyslová Zdravotní Pojišťovna (ČPZP) and others.
Private health insurance
As mentioned above, every foreigner must be insured during their whole stay in the Czech Republic. If you fall under the public health insurance (see the rules above), that meets the requirements and you can generally also use the public health insurance card for your visa or residence permit applications.
What if you can not access the public health insurance though? Since you still have to be insured, you must go for some private health insurance option.
Private health insurance for short-term stays in the Czech Republic
If you are coming to the Czech Republic just for a short period of time (up to 90 days) as a tourist, you do not necessarily have to have a Czech health insurance. It might be better to get one but if you for example already have a plan that covers you in the Czech Republic (i.e. from your home country and/or some international plan such as BUPA or CYGNA), that is sufficient by the law.
Private medical insurance for long-term stays in the Czech Republic
If you are moving to the Czech Republic (meaning you are getting some long-term visa or long-term residence permit), you must get Czech private medical insurance.
There are generally two types of coverage – Emergency Health Insurance and Comprehensive Health Insurance. Since the Emergency Insurance is basically useless (does not really cover much + you can not really use it for any visa related purposes anyway), we only focus on the Comprehensive Coverage in this article.
Similarly as in the public health insurance situation, also in the private insurance sector, there are more insurance companies you can choose from. Please find the main companies named and slightly described (based on our experience) below:
- Pojišťovna VZP (PVZP) – similarly as in the public health insurance, PVZP is not the only option (not since the illegal monopoly was canceled anyway) even if it might appear so in some online forums. There are other insurance companies available on the market. PVZP is also not the same as VZP since VZP is a public health insurance company and PVZP is private health insurance company. The main reason to choose pVZP might be wider availability of doctors in smaller cities or villages. Not a real difference in Prague or other bigger cities where basically all insurance companies have all major hospitals covered.
- Maxima – from what is available on the market, they offer the best “price vs coverage” ratio. In some categories, they might be the cheapest, in some categories they are not but they are neither significantly more expensive than others.
- Colonnade – a new player on the Czech Republic’s health insurance market, they are trying to get their customer base so they offer great coverage and comparable prices.
- Slavia – this used to be the “go to” option for students, but not really anymore. From our experience, there is no real reason to choose Slavia at this point, nor a reason not to choose them. Kind of like a plain toast – some like them, some do not care.
- Uniqa – the main advantage of Uniqa is that they can provide Comprehensive coverage for even a day. Most other insurance companies start on two months, some on three months, some even on four months. So, if you need to get a comprehensive coverage just for one month (i.e. you are in between jobs), this might be a good option.
- Pojišťovna SV – this insurance company might offer great prices for older people (say above 70) where other insurance companies either do not provide coverage at all, or make the policy pretty expensive (compared to SV).
- AXA – we would compare AXA to Slavia – not a real reason to go with them, not a real reason to not go with them.
How much does private insurance in Czech Republic cost
One thing you should understand about the private Czech insurance is that companies providing the insurance are businesses. The official definition of business by the Czech law is “an entity established for the reason of having profit”. If you do not have profit, you do not run a business, you run a charity or a governmental office.
This means all the insurance companies must always get more from you than what they pay you for treatments. This means you can not really expect the private insurance to cover everything the same way as the public insurance does. The private insurance has plenty of different exceptions when they will not pay (i.e. most pre-existing conditions) and they also follow specific procedures to decide if they pay something to you or not (i.e. you have to fill in an insurance claim, deliver it to the insurance company and then wait for their decision).
The main factor deciding about the price of the insurance is your age. The cheapest insurance is generally provided to people below 30 years of age and/or students. Higher prices are offered to young kids, people above certain age (generally 45 and up with big jump when above 70) and pregnant women.
Although after the illegal monopoly was canceled, all insurance companies were saying they would fight using quality, not the price. Well 😀 Now they all mostly compete by price. They also offer special prices or “gifts” throughout the whole year. So, it is a very difficult to give exact price now because two weeks from now, the prices will most likely be slightly different, in three months they might be completely different.
To give you a ballpark though, the cheapest insurance we can get for our clients is around 11 000 CZK a year (for people below 30), the most common prices for people above 30 are around 18-20k CZK a year, the most expensive for people above 70 can be over 100k CZK a year.
The best way to get private Czech health insurance
Even though you can go to all the different websites to all the different companies, you can read their terms & conditions, compare prices etc., there is a way easier solution! Simply get in touch with us using any of the contact forms on this page or our main contacts.
We are registered with the Czech National Bank as official insurance brokers, we work with 6 insurance companies and get the best offers from them (some of which they do not even advertise on their own sites). We also do not charge anything for our services for you (not allowed by the law, insurance companies must pay us)! Use this advantage following the steps below.
The easiest way to get private health insurance in Czech Republic
- Send us your date of birth or just your age (i.e. I am 30), for how long you need the insurance (i.e. my visa has been approved for 12 months so I need insurance for 12 months) and if you have any special requirements (i.e. I need pregnancy or a professional sports to be covered).
- We will calculate all the available options and will send them back to you the same day – so you do not have to spend time checking all the different options yourself.
- You ask us questions, we explain everything – sometimes people are clear on which option they want from the start, sometimes they have additional questions. We know all the insurance options inside out so we will be happy to answer all your questions. If we are not sure about anything, we’ll be happy to reach out to our contacts in the particular insurance company to get the answers for you 🙂
- Once you choose the most fitting option, we ask you to send us some of your personal details required by the insurance companies and we prepare the insurance for you. You then receive a link to pay the insurance directly from the insurance company of your choosing (we do not add any extra charges to the insurance price so you pay directly to the insurance company via card, ApplePay, GooglePay, QR code or bank transfer.
- You receive your insurance contract to your e-mail right away, we will also be happy to arrange an official printed and signed contract for you (which is often required by the MOI) and/or a physical insurance card.
To sum it up – you get the best prices on the market, with no effort from your side and no extra charges from our side. Contact us right away to get your quotes 🙂
Hi – I am a Czech citizen but I live in Australia. I am retired and over 70. I visit Prague for a few weeks each year. If I need medical help, am I covered by the government? If not, what are the options?
Hey Catherine,
Thank you very much for your comment!
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to answer your question since it depends on your situation.
Generally, as a Czech citizen in retirement age, your health insurance should be covered by the government. If you only come here for a few weeks a year, it is likely you are not covered though.
Ideally go to your public health insurance company the next time you are here and ask there 🙂
If needed, we’ll be happy to arrange a private insurance for you but that might be pretty expensive if you are above 70 and generally not covering much anyway.
Yours,
Move To Prague team