Financing the health care in the Czech republic: Some comparisons with Austria

Abstract

This paper presents an insight into problems of financing the greatest part of public services for the population - the health care. The situation in this field in two nearby countries - the Czech Republic and Austria is compared. The health status of the population and the health care bases in both countries are on a high level, and the Czech situation is approaching the somewhat better situation in Austria. The main problem in the both countries is the lack of financial resources for covering the increasing needs in health care services and medicaments. Therefore, the new ways how to balance the deficit of the system both on the revenue and expenditure sides are to be found. The reforms of the system should serve this goal. From the point of view of financial sources for health care a similar model is used in Austria and the Czech Republic, some modifications of it result from different historical development and from different economical level. These modifications and differences, together with the role of the state, insurance funds and direct payments of the population, are described in this paper. The causes of discrepancies between sources of finance and expenditures on the health care are discussed. Reforming the health care system is a long-term task. From this point of view the Austrian reform measures were prepared very well, with the needed advance before introducing them and it can serve as an example for preparation of the Czech reform. Nevertheless, many questions how to improve the financing of the health care for the benefit of patients remain still without answer and they are the matter of further research and discussions in many European countries.