Who offers comprehensive health insurance for foreigners? Comprehensive health insurance is offered by 6 insurance companies according to the law n. 326/1999 in regards to staying in the territory of the Czech Republic and about the changes of some laws. The licence for selling the Health insurance for foreigners is currently held by these six insurance companies:
- Health insurance company PVZP
- Slavia insurance company
- Ergo insurance company
- Maxima insurance company
- Axa insurance company
- Uniqa insurance company
>> Health insurance calculator for foreigners <<
When do you need Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners?
Health insurance is necessary, if you are a foreigner, or according to the law of Health insurance for foreigners, a third country citizen. A third country citizen in the Czech Republic is a citizen of a foreign country outside the European Union, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland or Norway.
To arrive in the Czech Republic from these countries you need to apply for a visa. It can be a short term visa or a long term visa depending on your type and purpose of stay. Usually foreigners arrange stays for longer than 90 days with a minimal validity of 6 months.
And what is written in the law? “Before the visa for over 90 days, the foreigner must submit proof of travel medical insurance during their stay in the territory, which corresponds to the conditions specified in § 180j. At the same time it is obliged to request proof of payment of premiums, said the document on travel health insurance. It does not apply in the cases referred to in § 180j paragraph. 4th.”
When applying for short term or long term visas, it is necessary to show the Department of asylum and migration policy a document showing the insurance payment. Payment for Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners is also checked at your insurance company by the Police of the Czech Republic.
Furthermore, the law specifies the minimal insurance indemnity payment, which has to be at least 60 000 EUR:” The proof of travel health insurance if you stay over 90 days for the purposes of this Act, means a document which proves stranger covering insurance costs, which is obliged to pay for their stay in the area if necessary and urgent health care, including those related the transfer or, in the case of death of transporting the mortal remains to the state whose travel document, or to another state in which he is allowed to stay. Agreed limit of indemnity per claim is at least 60 000 EUR, without the participation of the insured in the above costs.”
And what is Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners according to the law?:” Comprehensive health care means health care provided to the insured contracting medical service providers to insurers without direct reimbursement for treatment of the insured in order to preserve his health from the time before the conclusion of the insurance contract. This insurance shall not be excluded or dispensary preventive health care or health care related to pregnancy and childbirth insured mother her child.”
Dispensary care is permanent care and medical supervision necessary for long term illnesses. And what is meant by direct compensation of costs? The idea of private health insurance for foreigners is that it has to work like in the public health insurance for citizens of the Czech Republic. That means that clients from third countries are treated medically only on the basis of their private health insurance card.
How to choose Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners?
According to the Czech law, it is better to obtain Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners for stays which are longer than 90 days. However, based on our long term experience, we recommend you to buy Comprehensive health insurance for shorter stays also. Why?
1) Higher insurance limits
2) Almost identical prices
3) Insurance covers preventive and dispensary care
4) The majority of insurance companies develop only products of Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners
Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners – Insurance companies comparison
Are you applying for the Comprehensive health insurance for the first time or do you want to extend your existing insurance? We have decided to save you time and to compare health insurance products for you. We will focus on these different aspects:
1) Price for 1-year health insurance for age categories from 5 to 65 years old, using the current price lists and maximum discounts.
2) The process of arranging the insurance contract- (if it is possible to arrange the insurance contract online and with help of telephone consultancy.)
3) The number and quality of contracted medical facilities. Proportion of different doctors in medical facilities.
4) Communication with the insurance company and liquidation of insured events -evaluated by our clients.
5) Minimal limits of Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners.
6) Brand and security of the insurance company. History and tradition of the insurance company on the Czech market and its relationship to foreign clients.
| PVZP | SLAVIA | ERGO | AXA | MAXIMA | UNIQA | |
| 1) Price for 12 months | 13400 | 7200 | 8900 | 7400 | 7550 | 7600 |
| 2) Insurance contract arrangement | 90% | 95% | 70% | 50% | 80% | 40% |
| 3) Number and quality of the medical facilities | 100% | 80% | 74% | 60% | 65% | 78% |
| 4) Communication and liquidation | 84% | 80% | 77% | 65% | 71% | 65% |
| 5) Minimal limit of Complex insurance in EUR | 70.000 | 75.000 | 80.000 | 60.000 | 60.000 | 60.000 |
| 6) Brand and safety of the insurance company | 92% | 90% | 90% | 70% | 70% | 80% |
| Total evaluation: | 93% | 88% | 80% | 60% | 69% | 62% |
1) Price of the Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners:
Here we can observe that one of the most expensive brands is PVZP insurance company. The price is partly reasonable, because PVZP offers the widest network of contracted facilities and is therefore very similar to its mother company VZP. The process of medical treatment and liquidation of insured events is the same as in Slavia or Ergo insurance companies. Other insurance companies have similar prices.
2) Arrangement- Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners
Almost all insurance companies enable you to apply for the insurance online. Although Uniqa and Axa insurance companies don’t provide telephone consultancy. Additionally we need to point out that when arranging insurance “on the street”, Ergo and these two insurance companies use paper forms, where your filled data and insurance contract won’t be verified electronically. This may sometimes cause problems with your Visa application, so you better be careful with who you are paying for your insurance contract.
3) Number of contracted facilities of Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners. As we have already said before, the biggest list has the insurance company PVZP. However, when you look at our evaluation, the other insurance companies are also cooperating with a large amount of medical facilities.
4) Around 377 of our clients took part in our evaluation. When comparing the results we can see Slavia insurance company had the best results.
5) Limits of Comprehensive health insurance for foreigners. Larger limits are provided by Ergo and Slavia insurance companies.
6) Brand evaluation of each insurance company offering Comprehensive health insurance. Although being a separate institute, we can see that PVZP has more influence due to its mother company VZP. On the other hand Slavia is the oldest insurance company on the Czech market and has a Czech owner. Ergo has a smaller part on the Czech market; however it has the biggest owner in the European context.
