Filip Nowak: This is an attempt to organize the financing of benefits and the relationship between the market and the National Health Fund

Planned change in financing, incl. emergency medical services, preventive vaccinations and medicines for seniors was one of the main topics of the session opening the two-day conference. For now, as the lecturers emphasized, it is difficult to talk about details, because the draft amendment to the act on the professions of doctor and dentist has not yet been published, but the mere recall of the topic has been focusing the attention of experts and entities of the health care system for over three weeks.

Nowak emphasized that thanks to the contributory system of financing benefits, we have funds for new tasks. He assessed that both the financial and organizational capabilities of the Fund are sufficient to cope with the new tasks. - It is an attempt to organize the financing of services and to organize the relationship between the market and the National Health Fund. In fact, since 2009, the financing of services that have become the standard has been transferred to the National Health Fund. If we look at how the plan grows, we see that there is financial space for this type of activity - said Nowak, who later recalled that although the original financial plan for 2022 assumed PLN 107 billion for the costs of benefits, they will amount to a minimum after the amendments. PLN 129 billion, and the preliminary plan envisages PLN 136 billion for the next year.

However, is the NHF going to have no problem with taking over new tasks? Anna Rulkiewicz, president of the LUX Med group, assessed that trouble is a very real scenario. - The National Health Fund has always had a problem with employees. It's not like we have specialists who grow like mushrooms after rain - she said. It has been known for a long time - even the vice-president Bernard Waśko said on the occasion of many meetings of the Parliamentary Health Committee - that especially medical professionals, doctors and nurses, but also IT department employees are extremely sought after on the market, and their salaries in the Fund are uncompetitive in relation to offers from outside. - Of course, I feel a desire to recruit my associates. We are trying to raise salaries in the National Health Fund. However, these are only some of the actions taken that may bring satisfaction from working in the Fund, said Filip Nowak.

Rulkiewicz also pointed out that the calculations of the National Health Fund, and above all of the Ministry of Health, are based on extremely optimistic assumptions regarding the level of inflation, but also economic growth and the situation on the labor market - and the future does not have to be bright.

The president of the Supreme Medical Council, Łukasz Jankowski, protested against the claims that the money is enough to meet all needs. He stated that the decision in this matter was taken at a high political level after "superficial analyzes" and that the time of crisis - also financial - which is looming on the horizon is not a good time to look for savings in health, because the health debt will grow rapidly if Poles will not be able to meet their needs in the public or private system, having a choice - a private medical visit or payment.