Systém sociálního zabezpečení v České republice

The article provides a detailed analysis of the social security system in the Czech Republic. It is based on a catalogue of questions which served as a base for a more voluminous co-author publication on the situation of social security in seven Central European countries. The paper is a part of a wider comparative study that was worked out from national reports within a project initiated by the Institute of Labour Law and Social Law at the University of Vienna. A German edition of the study is being prepared in Austria. The topic is covered in the form of answers to the set of questions contained in a questionnaire that is given in the appendix. The author follows the traditional classification of social events according to nine types of risks: Sickness, maternity, old age, disability, work accident or occupational disease, death of a breadwinner, family income decline, unemployment and poverty. In the beginning the general part describes the basic structure of the social security system, its developmental trends since the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic (1918) to the present time, then it surveys the most important sources of law in individual subsystems, namely in health insurance, sickness insurance and pension insurance, in national social security support and social care (assistance). The following exposition is focused on the issues of management and decision making in particular areas of social security, on legal guarantees of social rights and claims, and also on the duties of employers. A specific feature of the Czech scheme of social security is the separation of health insurance from sickness insurance or social insurance respectively – this from the point of view of legal regulation, organization, implementation and also financing and administration. The areas of accident insurance and unemployment insurance have been kept separate from the Czech system of social security. The area designated as accident insurance in other countries has been regulated in labour legislation in the Czech Republic (Labour Code, Section 190 etc.) and it is constructed like the employer’s liability (on the principle of liability for result) for damage caused to the employee, as a result of an accident at work or occupational disease, including compulsory commercial insurance of this statutory liability for damage. Another area that has been excluded so far is the material security of job seekers (it is labelled unemployment compensation in other countries), which is designed by national employment policy and regulated by employment legislation. A specific part is devoted to individual social risks and it is divided into general principles, scope of protected persons, legal grounds, issues of financing, benefits and organization. In the end, the author outlines the transformation tendencies and trends within the Czech system of social security, which can be summarized as follows: The unification of health insurance and sickness insurance. The extension of retirement age and its subsequent equalization for men and women. The strategies supporting sound demographic development and the increase of premiums. The assignment of benefits to specific receivers. The coordination of the national system (subsystems) with European Union law. There are four tables by the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs, Prague, attached to the article providing a survey of basic data concerning the social security system in the Czech Republic between 1990 and 1998. The first table shows a graph of overall social security costs, the second and the third table specify the costs of individual segments of social security expressed in percentage of the GDP and of the total costs. The fourth table shows an overview of premiums for social security and health insurance.