I have been working in the Czech Republic as an individual contractor for the last 4 years. As I come from Russia and not a EU country, I can’t enroll into the public health insurance system before I spend 5 years in the country and get my permanent residence permit. So I must have a commercial health insurance.
I have been a registered blood donor in Russia before I moved to Prague, so I decided to register here as a donor as well. I went to the Department of blood transfusion at VFN where according to their website they were in need of donors with my 1+ blood type. Everything was going smoothly up to the point when I was asked about my insurance. When the doctor heard that I don’t have a public health insurance, she sadly told me that she can’t sign me up. According to her, commercial health insurance means no insurance for the hospital, as the insurance company may simply deny any claim and VFN has had plenty of those cases already.