Preventive programs offered by health insurance companies

The need to provide preventive programs is highlighted by professionals across medical disciplines. Preventive programs help improve health, are an effective strategy to reduce healthcare costs, and specifically contribute to improving the quality of life of population. After all, prevention is the first thing we can do and it does not cost us anything but time. In addition, once a disease outbreaks, it may be already too late. All health insurance companies establish a prevention fund which helps to cover prevention programs for the insured. The VZP insurance company offers programs dealing with cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes mellitus, vaccination, prevention of infectious diseases, medical and spa holidays, pregnancy screening tests, etc. My thesis aims to explore the use of prevention programs by the insured of the VZP insurance company. Based on the stated goal of my work, I have defined following assumed hypotheses. H1: Women use the prevention programs more than men do. H2: Insured persons who have obtained university education benefit from the preventive programs offered by the VZP health insurance company more than the insured persons without higher education. I chose qualitative research and a questionnaire survey as a suitable method for testing the set hypotheses. As a result of the research, the first hypothesis was confirmed, namely that women use preventive programs more than men. The second hypothesis was not confirmed. It has not been proven that preventive programs are used more by university educated insured persons. The thesis is focused on prevention and provides an overview of preventive programs, which are currently provided by the VZP insurance company. Therefore it is beneficial not only for VZP insured persons but also for all who are interested in prevention, and can also serve as a study material