Presenting the draft budget for 2024, Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared before Christmas that some PLN 192 billion would be allocated for health next year. However, the president's veto of the omnibus bill meant that the PLN 3 billion that was supposed to be injected into public utilities would be used for oncology and child psychiatry, among other things.
Finance: in 2024 more than 195 billion zlotys for health from public funds
Published Dec. 29, 2023 08:02
Fot. Getty Images/iStockphoto
Thus, the pool of public funds to be spent on health care will exceed PLN 195 billion. This will be 30 billion zlotys more than the plan for 2023 and more than 4.2 billion zlotys more than the minimum 7 percent of GDP for health stipulated in the law. - I have always lamented the fact - and here nothing has changed - that we refer in this law to the GDP of two years ago. It's not fair, because we're messing with the public's minds a bit. Everyone thinks it's so good because we have 6 or even 7 percent of GDP, and in fact we don't have that level," Minister Izabela Leszczyna admitted at Thursday's meeting of the Parliamentary Health Committee. The deputies gave an opinion for the Public Finance Committee on the parts of the draft budget bill relating to health care (in terms of funds under the responsibility of the Health Minister, the Patient Ombudsman's budget, and earmarked funds, including compensation funds).
According to the draft budget law, in 2024, outlays for health in part 46, which is at the disposal of the Minister of Health, are to amount to more than PLN 27 billion, which is PLN 13 billion more than planned in the 2023 budget law. This will increase, by PLN 2 billion, the funds for specialty training and also for higher education and science (so that the 30% raises for teachers, which also include university teachers, can be realized). Izabela Leszczyna also spoke about the financing of health policy programs (including a new in vitro infertility treatment program). She also spoke of the need to continue investment programs. - We will also introduce new programs," she announced. More than PLN 4 billion will also go to the Medical Fund.
- The budget we come to the Parliamentary Health Committee with today is actually the previous government's budget. We've added an earmarked reserve of 500 million zlotys for IVF, 10 million for the helpline, and we've added 3 billion zlotys that will be transferred to the NFZ in the form of treasury bonds - which I'm not happy about and never was, but the situation of public finances is such that we couldn't afford to increase the deficit," the minister explained. The NFZ will only be able to spend the money on oncology treatment for children under 18, child and adolescent psychiatry and treatment of rare diseases.
