Dear Prime Minister,
Please, stop discriminating our children.
We are paying the same taxes as the Czech citizens and never take unemployment benefits. We are studying the language, respecting the unique culture of the country, diligently following Czech laws and doing our best to integrate into the Czech society. What is more, we have made a leap of faith and entrusted you with the most precious we have got – the future of our children.
Right now we live with the Sword of Damocles hanging over our families for long 5 years before we become permanent residents of the Czech Republic. Only then we can be sure that our little ones will get the necessary medical help and their future won’t be crushed under the unbearable financial burden. The laws of the Czech Republic entitle third-country nationals to participate in the public health insurance system only on the basis of employment, which effectively excludes our children from the system. The only option the current law leaves them is private health insurance or paying for the services out of pocket, which is not even a distant match to a proper or financially available health care; the range of services a foreigner is entitled through private health insurance is very limited while paying out of pocket as a third country national results in triple price increase on average.
In other countries of the European Union children are automatically insured on the basis of their parent’s employment, either free of charge or for a fixed monthly premium. Many of us were completely unaware that the Czech Republic would take up this unique strategy of segregating the residents based on their country of origin\type of permit and totally forbidding children of employed third-country nationals who are not holding permanent residence permits yet to participate in the public health insurance system.
We are not tourists or free riders – we live here and pay taxes and social contributions. We are not asking for free health care – we are willing to pay the monthly premiums for our children to join the public health insurance system.
We are 2.5% of the population and we don’t have the right to vote or be elected even at municipal level. But it is not the reason to treat us as right-less workforce.
Please, stop discriminating our children.
Yours sincerely,
Inessa Vasilevskaya, Software Engineer, Prague
Andrey Muravev, Devops Engineer, Prague
Marianna Tudos, Product Designer, Prague
Ekaterina Aydos, IT Specialist, Brno
Bekir Burak Aydos, IT Specialist, Brno
Mikhail Platonov, Software build engineer, Prague
Igor Zakharov, Sr. Software Engineer, Brno
Maxim Potapov, Senior Software Engineer, Prague
Dmitry Ivaschenko, Software Engineer, Prague
Anton Zhdanov, Product Manager, Prague
Fedir Lavryk, Research Scientist, Prague
Fail Akhmetshin, Automation Engineer, Prague
Dmitrii Suntcov, Technical Writer, Prague
Maksim Makagonov, Musician, Prague
Iurii Shchekochikhin, Software Engineer, Prague
Ilya Onskul, Product Manager, Prague
Mikhail Katasonov, Software Engineer, Prague
Zakirdin Lamiev, Software Engineer, Prague
Roman Kozchenko, Software Engineer, Prague
Stanislav Tkachenko, Software Engineer, Prague
Maryna Nalbandian, Software Engineer, Prague
Alexey Tikhonov, Software Engineer, Brno
Leonid Titov, IT Specialist, Brno
Sergey Orlov, IT Specialist, Brno
Alexander Zagaynov, Lead Software Engineer, Prague