Final Word from Thursday, February 28, 2019

ANO's idea of transferring the obligation to pay the medical insurance of 60% of the population (pensioners, children, students, the unemployed, etc.) from the state to employers, employees and the self-employed is quite frankly one of the most bizarre proposals any Czech government has come up with. Each economically active person currently assumes that his or her monthly health-tax payments are covering more or less his or her own medical costs over a lifetime, but a sharp increase in the health tax would divide society by making each economically active person responsible for 1.5 other people over whose health habits the taxpayer has absolutely no control. Paying the health tax would suddenly become much more personal. "Is that lazy bum the guy I'm paying for?" people would ask. And what would the state gain? The government bureaucracy involved wouldn't change. It's hard to see how this "revolutionary" proposal benefits anyone at all. [ Czech Republic retired healthcare ]