Everyone in the Czech Republic must pay health insurance. Your life situation does not matter. Only the amount changes. In some cases, the state pays the insurance for you, and if you are an employee, your employer pays part of the health insurance for you. The employer has a legal duty to register new employees with the insurance company and pay contributions for them. Sometimes, however, they do not do this. How do you find out whether you do not have a debt with your health insurance company? And if you do have one, how should you proceed so that you do not have to pay a penalty?
Health insurance payer
Everyone who has permanent residence in the Czech Republic must have paid health insurance. Insured persons can be divided into 4 categories:
Employees
Employees pay health insurance of 13.5%. Out of this, 4.5% is paid by themselves. The amount is deducted from their gross salary. The remaining 9% is paid for the employee by the employer.
Self-employed persons (OSVČ)
Entrepreneurs pay their entire health insurance themselves in the form of monthly advances. Their minimum amount can change with the new year. It is important to monitor your advances and pay them in the correct amount.
State-insured persons
A group of people who do not have work as their main activity. They have at most side earnings up to a certain amount. This includes pensioners, students, mothers on maternity and parental leave, people registered at the Labour Office (úřad práce, ÚP), etc. The insurance premium is paid directly by the state for them.
Persons without taxable income (OBZP)
This includes people who have no taxable income. They do not fall into categories where the state pays the insurance premium for them either. These are people living from passive income (rentals, inheritance, etc.), housewives, some students over 26 years of age, and also people working illegally.
How does health insurance debt arise?
Health insurance debt most frequently arises for people who pay their insurance themselves:
- Omitting to pay an advance
- Paying a lower amount than the calculated advance
- Omitting to increase the advance in the event of a change
- Incorrectly entered details when making a payment (bank account, variable symbol)
- Late or no payment of health insurance underpayment for secondary activity
- Are you switching from secondary to main activity? You must immediately start paying monthly advances
- Homemakers with one child over 7 years of age or with 2 children over 15 years of age must pay health insurance
- It happens that a new employer fails to register a new employee with the health insurance company
How to find out your health insurance debt?
Some insurance companies have a public list of debtors. You can check their websites to see whether you owe anything. If your insurance company does not state this information on the internet, call them and make arrangements with them. You can also come to a branch in person and ask there. This service is free of charge. If you need a confirmed document of no debts for someone, each insurance company will issue it to you on the spot.
Insurance companies where you can find a list of debtors on the website:
- VZP (Všeobecná zdravotní pojišťovna)
- OZP (Odborová zdravotní pojišťovna)
- ZPMV (Zdravotní pojišťovna ministerstva vnitra)
How to resolve health insurance debt?
Address the situation immediately. A penalty of 0.05% of the owed amount accrues on your debt every day. If you make an effort, the insurance company will meet you halfway and set up a repayment schedule. However, this is not its duty. In the opposite case, if you play dead, the insurance company can address your debt through enforcement (exekuce).
As soon as you pay the owed amount in full, also try to write an apology letter with a request to waive the penalty. Explain what happened and show that you are sorry about the situation that arose. It is not the duty of the insurance company to waive the penalty for you, but it does happen. Remember to pay your debt first, otherwise your request to waive the penalty will be automatically rejected.
What threatens you in the event of non-payment of the debt?
Insurance companies keep a very close eye on their debtors. The limitation period (promlčení) for a health insurance debt is 10 years. Therefore, do not rely on the fact that your liability will just disappear. If you do not resolve the situation and the insurance company contacts you only after several years, your debt will reach an enormous amount.
Check that you are not on the list of debtors. Sometimes you can get on it by mistake and cause yourself unnecessary problems.
Do you have experience with debt towards a health insurance company? Share it in the comments below the article. Share the article with your friends so they can also check their status regarding health insurance.
And how are you doing with money? Can you manage it or do you have problems before payday? Read more about financial literacy.
