Aktualne.cz has added up the public health insurance payments made to five assisted human reproduction firms acquired by Andrej Babis last year. These payments represent 25% of their combined turnover.


I am fully reimbursable

EUR36 million – that was the cost to the public health insurance budget in 2011 - 2013 of treatments provided by five companies - Gennet, Iscare, Reprofit, Sanus and Gyncentrum - all operating in the field of assisted reproduction and artificial insemination and all acquired in the course of last year by Hartenberg Capital, the private investment vehicle of Andrej Babis. See here.

The companies have since been bundled up into one happy family called FutureLife. FutureLife's annual turnover is expected to top EUR50 million in 2015. In 2013 alone, the five fertile siblings received EUR12 million from VZP between them, a quarter of their combined revenue.

Under Czech state health insurance rules, the first three IVF treatment cycles are fully reimbursable, at an average cost to the taxpayer of EUR1000 per cycle. In other words, if the health minister were to reduce the state's commitment to fund these treatments, FutureLife would lose lots of customers. But broody women sitting on uncooperative eggs need not panic. For as long as Andrej Babis remains the most powerful politician in the land, the largest depositor in his sperm bank will remain the Czech state, thereby ensuring a plentiful supply of free sperm.