Constitutional limits to the financing of health care in the Czech Republic and in selected European countries.

The aim of this paper is to describe the constitutional limits to the financing of health care and especially of public health insurance in the Czech Republic. It describes the current situation in the financing of health care on the basis of the Czech constitutional order as it has been interpreted by the Constitutional Court. Finally it presents an overview of the incorporation of the right to health into the constitutional documents of several European countries with the stress on the right to receive health care "free of charge". It is not typical within the European region to specify in constitutional acts to what extent it is giving the right to health care free-of-charge or more precisely to what extent and for what groups health care is paid for by persons other than by the citizens (patients). The Czech Republic is one of the exceptional cases in which the basic right to health care free-of-charge on the basis of public insurance is given directly by the Constitution.