Ministry of Health projects CZK 11 bil. deficit in health insurance for 2024, aims recover in 2025

The Ministry of Health has announced that public health insurance is projected to run a deficit of CZK 11 billion this year, with total expenditures expected to reach CZK 502.6 billion. The Ministry plans to recover the shortfall in 2025, anticipating revenues of CZK 529.7 billion. However, only CZK 5 billion will be available for increases in healthcare reimbursements, according to Tomas Troch, Director of the Price Regulation and Reimbursement Department at the Ministry.

The proposed reimbursement decree for 2025, which outlines how healthcare funds will be distributed, has drawn criticism from some sectors of the healthcare industry. General practitioners (GPs) and outpatient specialists have expressed their dissatisfaction, threatening to close their clinics in protest by the end of October. Small hospitals are also considering a petition to the Constitutional Court. “We will continue negotiations with GPs and outpatient specialists in the coming days,” Troch said, emphasizing that the decree serves as a baseline and additional funds may be set aside by insurance companies.

The Ministry’s proposal to increase reimbursements by 3.3% year-on-year is backed by an April government resolution, which instructed the Ministry to ensure the public health insurance system remains balanced in 2025.

Troch explained that CZK 3 billion of this year’s deficit is attributed to an agreement with hospital doctors that led to salary increases, adding, “This is a mandated cost we must account for in 2025, not just for VZP, but for all health insurers.”

Next year, the state’s contribution for state-insured individuals is set to rise by just 2.7%. This increase is based on inflation and real wage growth over the past two years. As a result, total year-on-year revenues are expected to grow by CZK 27.4 billion. However, only CZK 5 billion will be allocated for growth in healthcare payments, representing an average increase of just 1.1%—the smallest in recent years.

The final version of the decree is scheduled to be published by the Ministry of Health at the end of October. The current proposal outlines the largest increase of 11.5% for center-based drugs, which include modern treatments for serious diseases that can only be prescribed by select medical centers. Aftercare services are set to increase by 11%, followed by prescription drugs (5.8%) and medical devices (5.5%). Among healthcare areas, physical therapy (5.4%) and outpatient specialists (4.6%) are seeing the most growth. General practitioners, many of whom are protesting the proposal, will see a more modest reimbursement increase of 2.8%.

Source: CTK