Rath is one of two finalists to succeed outgoing Health Minister Milada Emmerová, whom Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek ousted Oct. 12 amid mounting concerns of a deepening financial crisis in the country's health care system.

Paroubek asked Rath and Deputy Health Minister Jiří Koskuba, the other finalist, to submit a basic plan to stabilize the tumultuous health care sector.

The outline should contain proposals to ensure health care on at least present levels, stabilize the system's financial condition and deal with the deficit of the General Health Insurance Company (VZP), the country's largest health insurance provider, Paroubek said this week.

Neither candidate could be reached for comment at press time.

The prime minister is expected to recommend a new health minister this week. President Václav Klaus will make the official appointment.

Deputy Prime Minister Zdeněk Škromach temporarily heads the ministry.

Rath is president of the Czech Medical Chamber (ČLK), a union with some 40,000 members that recently squared off against the Health Ministry over its finances.

Rath's union supported a one-day strike among private physicians earlier this month to protest payment delays from VZP. Doctors gathered outside the ministry Oct. 6 and demanded an overall review of the health care system's finances, a public spectacle widely seen as accelerating Emmerová's downfall.

Whether Rath would continue to lead the doctors' union if appointed health minister is unclear.

Rath told reporters he would accept the appointment, and has made it clear he would end his business activities representing a family company and private medical facility if selected. But he has made no statement regarding the ČLK, which some say would represent a conflict of interest.

"The new minister will be in office during a transition period before the elections," says Lucie Orgoníková, a spokesman for Paroubek. "The prime minister would arrange and ensure that the ČLK is led by someone else during this period."