The population is aging and avoiding prevention at all costs. That can fatally undermine healthcare funding and ultimately the availability of healthcare. Thousands of late diagnoses of colorectal cancer alone can cost billions of Czech crowns each year. When added up, neglected diseases can over the years generate astronomical costs, in the trillions of crowns, warned Professor Ladislav Dušek, director of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic (ÚZIS). He also shared some good news, for example, that they are beginning to link data from the health system with data from the social system.
Regular medical check-ups can save billions of crowns and save many lives in the following years. However, prevention is still widely neglected, for example due to concerns about a possible wrong diagnosis or fear of doctors. „Ultimately, the data proves it. Breast cancer screening is attended by 70 percent of women. Even worse, only 30 percent of Czechs attend regular check-ups to see if they don’t have a tumor in the large and small intestine or rectum,“ Ladislav Dušek, the director of ÚZIS, pointed out in his presentation on the topic of health risk prevention and the economics of prevention in data.
He added that deficiencies also exist when it comes to vaccinations. „For example, thanks to the digitalization in the area of prevention in the Czech Republic, we now know that 55.8 percent of clients of residential social services were vaccinated against influenza in the 2023/2024 season,“ Dušek said. On average, only around 20 percent of people aged 65 and more get vaccinated each year. In at-risk groups, such as cardiac patients or diabetics, the vaccination rate is only around 10 percent, and in the general population it is around eight percent.
The situation could be improved by the ever-evolving monitoring and digitalization of the healthcare sector. What could help is, for example, a programme that will enable healthcare institutions to share in real time data on the results of preventive check-ups or medical screenings. Another project that is getting more popular is the “EZkarta”, which aims to gradually offer healthcare services and information to citizens. The Central Vaccination Registry, which was launched last year, is also based on this application.
In the coming years, vaccination and other prevention in the form of regular medical check-ups should become one of the important tools used in the Czech Republic to ensure that the medical system remains in good shape even as the population ages. That’s because it will mean that more and more people will need medical care and at the same time there will be fewer doctors available.
„Whereas at the end of 2021 there were over 894,000 Czech residents aged 75 and over, by the beginning of 2040 there should be almost 1.4 million of them. So that means that the number of people who pay social and health insurance will decrease, and on the other side, the costs of health care will increase,“ Dušek outlined, adding that these costs, which are mostly covered by health insurance, are already increasing as of now.
Cancer and heart attack cases will rise by tens of percent
The ideal way to save considerable sums in the healthcare sector would be to attend regular medical examinations. „Over the course of ten years, there is a risk of rapid increase in the number of diseases. For example, in 2020, over 460,000 cancer patients were diagnosed in the Czech Republic. Ten years later, it is estimated to be approximately 584,000, which is 27 percent more,” he said. An even greater increase, 68 percent, over the same period is expected when it comes to heart failure. Over 607,000 people could be affected in 2030, and in another ten years it could be up to 800,000 people.
Health prevention, if prioritised by both older and younger patients, could prevent treatment that is several times more expensive and drive down the rising costs of health care. In the case of colon and rectal cancer alone, 3,500 cases are diagnosed late each year. „The costs of treatment after the diagnosis is estabilished at a late stage are around 720 million crowns a year and around 2.6 billion crowns overall per pacient,“ Dušek pointed out, adding that late diagnoses could be prevented with regular medical examinations. If other diseases, such as heart problems and other types of cancer, are included in this number, the costs of treatment could be significantly higher.
Even teenagers face the same, not very flattering numbers. According to the National Register of Paid Health Services, 66,2 thousand children and adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 needed psychiatric care in the last year. „That’s almost 20,000 more people than in 2013. And we’re talking about a group of people that is supposed to be living through the most beautiful moments of their lives,“ Dušek pointed out.
For example, between 2013 and 2023, there was a significant increase of 225 percent in young people with a depressive disorder. In 2013, over a thousand patients were dealing with this problem, ten years later it was four thousand. The number of patients with changes in personality and behavior increased even more in this age category. While in 2013 there were 455 such cases, in just ten years, the number has almost quadrupled.
„The Czech population aged 15 and over is also in not doing well when it comes to obesity. This is related to insufficient exercise. The proportion of people exercising at least 150 minutes a week is below average in the Czech Republic, both for men and women,“ Dušek pointed out, adding that obesity can be linked to heart and other health problems, which also increase health care costs.
Lukáš Karbulka
Thanks for the support of the conference go to the General Health Insurance Company of the Czech Republic, Health Insurance Company of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic, General Health Insurance Company of the Slovak Republic and the companies Tiscali Media, ALK, Ewing, EUC, AKESO, Sprinx, National Sports Agency and Dukla Sports Club.
