Emotions in the Sejm. Health premium cut voted down

In favor - 213 deputies. Against - 190. A few dozen MPs did not take part in the vote or abstained (including the vast majority of the Confederation Club). A little more mobilization in the ranks of the Law and Justice Party - and those in power could speak of defeat. Already on Thursday, one could hear from Law and Justice circles that this was an unwanted scenario, because Law and Justice politicians know that a large part of the electorate has a huge grievance for the changes introduced by the Polish Deal, which the premium reduction softens somewhat. One can assume that PiS wanted the government to back down - in which case Jaroslaw Kaczynski's party could argue that it stopped the disaster of health care finances, but didn't want to sway the vote if it came to it. Hence the overall slight difference in favor of the bill, which will now be sent to the Senate.

It was not without a lot of emotion. They were cooled by Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski, who assured that the loss of revenue (estimated at PLN 4.6 billion, although this may be an underestimate) would be compensated by the NFZ with a subsidy from the state budget. Opponents of lowering premiums were not convinced. Marcelina Zawisza, whose motion to reject the bill in its entirety was rejected by the Sejm by a huge majority (it was supported by 56 deputies, including the Left club and 31 Law and Justice deputies, as well as one deputy from the Civic Coalition), reproached supporters of lowering the premium that their decision means taking away money from patients for treatment. - You are taking money away from patients. If the Finance Minister has 6 billion lying around slowly, I will tell you what it can be used for. For the overcharges. For what hospitals and clinics have already realized," the deputy said, recalling that, if only during Wednesday's meeting of the Health Committee, there was talk about the difficult financial situation of the National Health Fund, which does not allow it to pay for all the overdeliveries in home long-term care (the Fund has paid half the value of the overdeliveries). Deputy Health Minister Jerzy Szafranowicz also explained that for the same reason, the NFZ cannot afford to raise valuations this year, in accordance with last year's AOTMiT recommendation.

It is hard to deny that the Health Ministry is well aware of the financial realities of the NFZ. Two weeks ago, Izabela Leszczyna declared that "the NFZ will not be able to bear" the premium reduction and announced that she would not vote for the bill. On Friday, April 4, however, she voted to pass the premium reduction.