Czech Republic (Czechia)

Axco provides details on the life insurance sector including Czech market participants, reinsurance and distribution channels. The reports describe classes of business from both individual and group life such as whole life, endowment, term life and unit-linked.
Information on non-life classes for example critical illness and private medical insurance.

The report describes the public and private healthcare system in the Czech Republic, the scope of cover, accessibility financing and provides an analysis of how the public and private systems complement each other.

Axco reports on the three pillars of Czech pension provision.

• State pension benefits including benefit calculations and eligibility criteria 
• Workplace pension provision; types of schemes calculations eligibility and; tax implications
• Voluntary individual pension provision, type of products and tax implications

The Czech Republic report provides an in-depth analysis of the regulatory framework governing social security as well as details on financing and eligibility. Information includes but is not limited to

• state pensions,
• permanent disability benefit
• occupational accident and disease
• maternity and paternity payments 

The Czech Republic life assurance market is a moderate size, 13th in Europe in 2019, smaller than neighbours Austria and Poland, but larger than Hungary and Slovakia, and 40th in the world. It is relatively immature, given that private companies were only allowed after the fall of the communist regime, when the national insurer was semi privatised. Penetration is low, and comparable to this region.

Issues faced by the market in recent years have been high distribution costs in the form of commissions paid to intermediaries, miss-selling, and high surrender and lapse rates caused by ....

Pension penetration rates are high in the Czech market, (almost 50% of the population) and are not seen as a market issue, whereas insufficiency of pensions, due to low contribution rates, even with 30 years contributions, is an issue of concern. There is a pensions committee made up of government, academics and industry participants which periodically discusses ideas for pension reform but there is no political agreement on reforming the system, so there is no outcome. Historically the government philosophy is one of high state provision which, given the ageing population and rapidly increasing dependency ratio is unsustainable, which the market recognises.

Due to the scope of cover under the mandatory health insurance, and the quality of services and hospitals, there is little requirement for voluntary health insurance. Private medical insurance (PMI), offering full reimbursement of inpatient and outpatient medical costs, is not a feature of the market. Medical plans, in the form of non-insured pre-paid packages, sold to citizens take the following forms:

• medical assistance services, providing information and arranging consultations with specialists

• cash plans to replace earnings during sickness, inability to work or hospital stays

• plans paying benefits on accidental death and permanent disability as well as hospitalisation costs as a result of injury

• plans to cover basic costs such as plaster casts following from broken bones

• ....