Health and social welfare in Communist Czechoslovakia can be defined by increases in maternity benefits, fluctuations in birthrate and abortion rate and decreases in factors such as infant mortality.
The healthcare system featured an excess of bureaucracy, small-scale corruption, failing medical infrastructure, and outdated medical supply, while the social welfare system also fell behind in areas such as housing and nurseries.History Politics Economy Industry Agriculture Foreign trade Transport Education Demographics Government structure Health and social welfare Mass media Resource base Religion Society In the 1980s, Czechoslovakia had a comprehensive and universal system of social security under which everyone was entitled to free medical care and medicine.
[1] Factory and local health care centers, first aid stations, and a variety of medical clinics supplemented hospitals and other inpatient institutions.
[2] The ratio of physicians to inhabitants had improved steadily, climbing from 1 per 745 in 1954 to 1 per 270 in 1989, although there were shortages of doctors in rural areas.
Despite the improvements, about 40% of all the medical equipment was obsolete, facilities were outdated and in short supply, the bureaucracy was excessive, and small bribery was widespread.
In bygone days, the spas were frequented by European royalty and the wealthy, but in the 1980s they were open to all, including foreign tourists (who made up 10% of the patients in 1985).
As with medical care, the gap in life expectancy between the Czech lands and Slovakia was narrowed during this period.
[8][10] In 1985 slightly more than one-quarter of the Czechoslovak population received some kind of pension; the elderly, the disabled, widows, and orphans were all entitled to assistance.
Social security benefits (primarily retirement and disability) were equal for all wage earners.
Employers could not deny a woman's request for an additional year of unpaid leave for child rearing (without loss of job seniority).
A system of child allowances and maternity grants also assisted women who took unpaid leave.
Beyond the sheer lack of space, nurseries were poorly distributed and were often concentrated in older centers rather than in new housing developments where young families were likely to reside.
[12] High employment of women and inadequate services contributed to the decline in Czechoslovakia's birthrate in the 1960s.
In the Czech lands, the population growth rate stood at its 1930s low; in Catholic Slovakia, it was the lowest on record.
By 1973 a family with three children received roughly one-third the average worker's salary in allowances.
In addition, couples with children had priority on apartment waiting lists and were entitled to larger living quarters, no small inducement in the face of Czechoslovakia's chronic housing shortage.
It has been suggested that abortion has remained one of the most favored means of birth control, despite the risks involved.
"Roy Porter Student Prize Essay For the People's Health: Ideology, Medical Authority and Hygienic Science in Communist Czechoslovakia".
RFE Czechoslovak Unit, Blinken Open Society Archives, Budapest This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.