Me and my wife are Indian nationals, we have been living and working in Prague for 4 years and both have public health insurance through employment. In summer 2022 we have welcomed our beloved baby girl. Unfortunately, the delivery went with some complications, so PVZP denied us the PVZP Exclusive plan enrollment at the time – according to the insurance company, the baby had to undergo a series of examinations first which would have taken several months because of the waiting times. All they could offer our daughter was the very limited PVZP Plus for 32.000 czk / year; the contract was signed in June 2022.
Since summer 2021 newborn children of employed third-country nationals without permanent residence permit are entitled to the public health insurance for 3 months tops, after that time they must get a private health insurance contract with PVZP. Our baby’s PVZP Plus insurance started from the 1 Sep 2022, the next day her public health insurance coverage ended.
Unfortunately, the routine hip exam which our daughter had at the beginning of August 2022 showed some abnormalities, so on Aug 30, 2022 the doctors insisted for her to be hospitalized for an intensive 3 week long treatment at the orthopedic department at the Bulovka hospital. And that’s when things went horribly wrong.
Second week into the treatment PVZP informed us that they were not going to pay for it. We immediately wrote an appeal explaining that the hip displasia diagnosis was not known at the time the PVZP Plus contract was signed, so it should still be an eligible insured event. But our appeal was denied. PVZP specialist informed us, that any treatment or diagnosis that occurred before the start of the insured period – at the time when public health insurance was still valid – was not covered by PVZP.
We could not afford to continue our baby’s treatment so we had to stop it abruptly. We have tried to extend our daughter’s public health insurance by offering to pay on her behalf the same monthly contributions unemployed Czech citizens pay – but the current law doesn’t allow this. The only way our baby gets proper health insurance is through her own employment, but children can’t be employed before the age of 15, so it is a dead end as well.