I was looking for tourist information on www.czechtourism.com and found a notice saying that health insurance is mandatory for visitors to the Czech Republic. Here's a copy and paste:
IMPORTANT! New health insurance requirements for visiting the Czech Republic

Please note the following new requirements for ALL visitors to the Czech Republic, valid as of 11/28/2005:

Visitors are required to have a travel/health insurance to travel to the Czech Republic. The health insurance must cover the medical services abroad - if not, visitors must have a travel insurance for possible expenses and hospitalization charges for medical reasons (accidents or unexpected illness while traveling in the Czech Republic), including repatriation to the country of legal residence or the country which issued the passport. Minimum coverage of the insurance has to be at least $35,000.

Make sure you have a proof of your medical insurace, such as an insurance card issued by your insurer, with you when entering the Czech Republic.

My question is how realistic is it that they are going to ask you for proof? Anybody had experience? I know this is new. I do have health insurance through my company, but I doubt it covers evacuation.

What is new/

There was no check at the border when I entered in April last year.

The Germans checked when we left Germany to see if the rental car was insured for Czech though.

There's something VERY odd about the Czechtourism site.

The warning you describe is only on the pages designed for Americans. Whatever the truth of this might be, there's no mention of this alleged new rule on the pages designed for Czech's neighbours. Or for Canadians.

Not surprisingly. The Czech Republic is, under the Treaty of Rome, simply not allowed to impose this restriction on all visitors, as the site claims. The 400 million citizens of the other EU countries have virtually unrestricted freedom of movement into Czech. Czech may impose this restriction on Americans, but the wording used on the website must be incorrect.

The question is: how incorrect. I suggest you check this with your nearest Czech consulate.

Since it is a "new" requirement I suppose we need to hear from someone who entered the Czech republic SINCE it became "new" in November of 2005.

flanner, the new rule is also listed on the czech consulate site for montreal.

That's true that someone who traveled recently should say--but an insurance card proves absolutely nothing, anyway, so that would be a silly requirement. First, insurance cards don't have expiration dates on them, and second, they don't detail benefits and coverage. Lots of people could have insurance but it might not cover them abroad. Some insurance may have a catastrophic policy with a deductible of $10K which would make it moot for their purposes, or it may not cover emergency rooms or even hospitalization.

This appears to be a notice that they have put on there solely for Americans.
I have also checked the Czech Embassy's website and it says nothing about this requirement.

I am thinking of going there in a few months, so figured I'd find this out. I've contacted the tourism office by email (they don't seem to take phone calls and the canned messages do not say anything about it) and the embassy, as I live in Wash DC. That was just a phone call and I left a message. We'll see if they return the call.

Christina, if you get a response from the embassy or tourist site, please let us know! I can't see how this would be enforced. Perhaps it would work checking people who enter the country by airport, but is there any passport control coming in by train? I myself will be entering from Austria, and I hadn't been thinking there would be passport control from there, though what do I know?!

i would imagine that the goal is not to check 100% of the people who come into the country and i would guess that the number checked on entry would be closer to 0% than 100%.

i think the major point to this law is that any foreigner without sufficient health cover is ILLEGAL. the effect:
1. more excuses to keep out the underclasses.
2. more excuses to jail or deport the underclasses or "undesirables".
3. people there might think twice about seeking medical attention as they will be found out to be breaking czech law if they don't have insurance.
4. underclasses will be disuaded from coming to CR for the purpose of medical treatments.

i am not an expert nor did i read this anywhere, it is merely speculation.

he law stipulates that a foreigner wishing to enter the territory of the CR at a border crossing is obliged to present the following documents:

a) Always (compulsory documents):
1. A passport issued to his name (a foreigner holding a passport expiring less than 90 days prior to the expiration date of his visa may be denied entry, or less than 90 days before the foreigner’s planned departure, if from a country with no visa requirement;
2. A valid visa for the Czech Republic, if subject to a visa obligation;
b) Upon request (non-compulsory documents) of the Foreign or Border Police:
1. A document proving the foreigner’s possession of adequate funds for staying in the CR or a verified letter of invitation dated less than 90 days following the date of verification by the police;
2. A proof of health insurance covering medical costs abroad in the event of an accident or sudden illness occurring in the CR, including the costs of repatriation in the event of an illness or death during his stay in the CR; this condition does not apply, if the foreigner’s health is insured under special legal provisions or if the foreigner’s medical costs are covered in another manner (e.g. in connection with employment); furthermore, a foreigner is obliged to present a proof of health insurance coverage, if he is not covered under special legal provisions from the day of his entry in the CR;
3. A document proving the foreigner’s reservation of accommodation in the CR;
4. A visa for the foreigner’s country of destination or country of transit before entering the country of destination; this condition does not apply, if the foreigner is not subject to a visa obligation in the given country;
5. A document proving the foreigner’s possession of adequate funds for departing from the CR for a country of his citizenship or permanent residency, if it is reasonable to assume that the costs of the foreigner’s departure would have to be borne by the CR;
6. An obligation to fill out and sign a border-crossing pass, including a photograph;
7. An obligation to answer questions to the extent of his visa application.

Rather than keeping out the "underclasses" I suspect that the "requirement" may be meant to offset any costs incurred by those needing healthcare while in the Czech Republic.

If anyone thinks that the definition of "underclass" includes not having health insurance then the US has one of the largest groups of "underclass" folks on the planet!

Will Blue Cross be supplying translations in Czech, and/or in Slovak, of its explanation of benefits? If not, how will the border guards read the contracts? And do they make exceptions if the tourist has no insurance, like for religious reasons, like the Amish?

It's interesting that this has come up because we just received an email from Eurostar telling us we should start bringing European health insurance cards with us on our Eurostar trips (we are frequent Eurostar travelers so we get regular updates from them on fare specials, travel tips, etc.).

>>>>
If anyone thinks that the definition of "underclass" includes not having health insurance then the US has one of the largest groups of "underclass" folks on the planet!
>>>>

this isn't about the US but since you brought it up, i couldn't agree more.

Okay. I'm totally confused now. So who should I call to confirm any of this insurance stuff for US citizens? My trip is planned for July.

Good news for me. Mrs. Fly has the Czech Republic on here travel priority list. I don't--been there done that long before it became a big tourist destination.

We have health insurance coverage overseas, but not repatriation insurance. I can use this as one more little reason not to go to the Czech Republic.

Yea!

I did hear by email from the Czechtourism office in NY (the ones with the website). Unfortunately, the email was rather short and not very explicit as to my questions. There may have been some language problems, also (I also had some lang. problems with the Embassy as some of their staff do not speak English fluently, also).

In any case, the Czechtourism office said this is a requirement for everyone, it must be that other countries haven't updated their web section yet. Perhaps each country is in charge of their own page on there. I asked her who was in charge of the "other countries" section in English, as it doesn't say it either.

However, the confusing part was that she never answered my questions as to how this was going to be regulated and what "proof" one could have. I told her an insurance card as suggested on her website didn't prove anything.

So, I have re-queried her about the supposed "proof", and asked her exactly who was going to check this and if the immigration people at the airport were going to wade through 100 pages of insurance documentation in a foreign language. I also asked how this was going to be regulated if you arrived by train. I also asked if it applied to those going to CR just for a few hours or on a day trip, say from Dresden. I asked if they really intended to deport every tourist arriving by plane without this.

She suggested one buy travel insurance and said it was cheap. I asked her how one would prove what that coverage was (she said you needed 30K euro of coverage).

But, the most confusing thing was she said you needed health insurance "for the validity of your visa" which made me wonder if this requirement is just for those on longterm visas or workers/students with visas. That would make some sense. So, I especially asked her to explain that comment. As I pointed out, citizens of US, Canada, Mexico (and many other countries) are not required to have visas to visit the CR for less than 90 days. Furthermore, I don't think many of those travel insurance policies she was recommending would cover those visiting for reasons requiring a visa (longterm, working), so that is kind of contradictory.

At least she answered within a day last time, so I hope to get clarification. The Embassy never called back so far(it was the consulate, the place that gives visas).

This is the reply I got from my inquiry to Czech Tourism.com. Like Christina, no mention of how they'll check or enforce.
Message:
As of 24th November 2005, ALL visitors ( not only US visitors) of the Czech Republic must be in possesion of valid health insurance with the coverage of 30.000 EUR, minimum valid for the Czech Republic and for the entire validity period of the visa. I'm sorry for the confusion; it appears that the other Czech Tourism offices around the world have not posted this information on their websites yet.
You can purchase travel insurance at your travel agency. For additional information a visit this website www.insuremytrip.com. The health insurance usually costs about $50 for a month tourist stay in Europe.

Andrea Liskova | Research Associate | CzechTourism USA
1109 Madison Avenue | New York, NY 10028
T (212) 288-0830 | F (212) 288-0971 |
E [email protected]

This was the same as my response from them, "for the entire validity period of the visa." I don't need a visa. Guess it's time for another email.

okay, folks, Andrea from Czechtourism just personally called me on the phone and also talked to the consul general.

The deal is that they insist this is for everyone "in theory", not just visa holders. They admit they do not really believe they are going to be checking documentation of every tourist arriving by plane in the CR, and hadn't really thought about the train thing.

However, officially, you are supposed to have it and they can ask you. The consul general said you should have a letter from your insurance company with the basic information on it to identify you, and that it should state that you have medical coverage abroad (or at least in the CR, as that's what they care about). The letter should have your name, policy number, dates of validity and they said something about wanting $35K of coverage. I told her I work for an insurance company, or at least do consulting to them (one of the biggest in the US is one of my clients) and the odds that travelers are going to be getting letters our of their insurance company easily with all these details are slim to none. I also told them that insurance cards (the consul general suggested one bring their insurance card) did not prove anything as I have cards from companies I was under 10 years ago, they usually do not have expiration dates on them, nor any coverage. They didn't know that. I also told her that most health insurance, even if it covered your health, would not necessarily cover repatriation (which they mentioned). I know ours does not because by law it only covers things related to health, and once you are dead, that's it.

IN any case, that's what they said. It is for everyone (except not EU residents, which is what I expected) and in theory they can ask for documentation. If you have travel insurance, I guess you should bring the few sheets of paper that say what it covers.

BTW, she said they did have this info on the Consulate's website in NY and we did finally find it on the Embassy's website in Washington. It is really buried, but if you go into the section on travel and visas, then into the visa section, then "general", it's at the bottom of the page after the part that says all the people who don't need visas. She did say it was in the section about green card holders, and I pointed out that I'm not a green card holder, just a regular citizen. She said it was also on the New York Consular website

http://www.mzv.cz/washington

She admitted that they did not really think it likely that it would be enforced very much (but I suspect it is to keep out people they don't want myself), and she didn't think the CR was going to deport all tourists (which they need). I told her the Embassy should have a more prominent section on that, because if you knew you didn't need a visa, there was no reason you'd even be going into that section on the webpage.

Anyway, that's the scoop. Andrea really was very helpful and nice. She was trying to figure this out herself, as it is all new to them. She said she'd try to find out more about what proof they would really accept.

I received a phone call as well from the consulate in Washington. He said basically the same thing as Christina.

He said they would do most of the checking at the airport. He said I should print out whatever info I could from the insurance company's web site regarding my policy.

Essentially, the idea seems to be that the more printed pages of info you have the better.

I hope the biggest challenge isn't starying the trip!!!