EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS

Prague, Czechia

EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS 2022

The monopoly of PVZP on travel medical insurance for foreigners in the Czech Republic

Maryna Pysareva Independent researcher Czechia e-mail: pysareva.maryna@gmail.com

Abstract The article focuses on disclosing the various aspects of granting PVZP a monopoly to provide commercial health insurance services to foreigners in the Czech Republic over the next 5 years. The justifications of the stated reasons for its adoption are considered and it is concluded that a number of these reasons could have been resolved by other mechanisms, as mentioned in the article. This step is violating European antitrust laws (state aid and direct exclusion of other entities from the provision of the relevant services) and the changes made to the law were disproportionate and unjustified. It is difficult to see how human rights have been protected; on the contrary, it is obvious that the state only pursues its own interests. In this way, the Czech Republic cast doubt on its status as a “rule of law”, “European” and “social” state. Nevertheless, the norm of the law indicating the tightening of requirements for commercial insurance companies is evaluated positively. Keywords: European law violation, foreigners, inequality, medical insurance, monopoly JEL Classification: K210, G220, I130, O150, K380 1. Introduction Even though migration flows have dropped by one-third due to the COVID-19 pandemic, right now OECD urges countries to support migration due to its very high fiscal return (OECD [online], 2021), which in turn requires ensuring the health needs of migrants (WHO, 2021, p.10) for their successful integration (Jervelund et al. , 2018, p.14). In different countries, even within the EU, we can see a different approach to resolving the issue of affordable healthcare for migrants. In the main, EU countries have been following a significant expansion of publicly funded coverage in recent years. Also, along with state or public coverage, there is the commercial health insurance, which can perform a supplementary/ complementary role covering user charges (usually used by more affluent segments of the population or to cover additional medical services with certain privileges)

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