The 5,000-crown limit a patient's fees can annually reach altogether, while the sum he pays above the limit is returned to him by the health insurer, will be lowered to 3,000 crowns for children under 15. The two junior coalition parties, the KDU-CSL and the Greens (SZ), failed to push through the abolition of the fees for elderly people or the lowering of a patient fee annual limit from 5,000 crowns to 2 percent of the patient's annual income. Today's agreement of the coalition leaders was vitally important for the centre-right government of Mirek Topolanek (Civic Democrats, ODS). If no compromise had been found, some SZ and KDU-CSL deputies would have probably proposed the abolition of certain fees at the lower house session that starts on Tuesday. The left-wing opposition previously challenged the fees in a complaint it lodged with the Constitutional Court (US).
Last week the US rejected the complaint and decided that the regulatory fees patients have been obliged to pay since January under the first phase of the health care reform masterminded by Health Minister Tomas Julinek (ODS), are not at odds with the constitution. Parties' battle over the fees may flare up on the soil of parliament. At present, all patients have to pay 30 crowns for a visit to a surgery, 30 crowns per an item on prescription, 60 crowns for a day spent in hospital and 90 crowns for using emergency medical service. ($1=16.179 crowns)
(Ceske Noviny)
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