Expenditures on health care services in 2026 will exceed PLN 201 billion, half of which will be allocated to inpatient care, despite the reform announced by the Health Ministry, which aims, among other things, to invert the pyramid of services by shifting some of them to outpatient care, according to the draft financial plan of the National Health Fund.
NFZ financial plan: Hospital treatment will consume half the budget
Published July 4, 2025 12:45
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Next week, the draft financial plan will be reviewed by members of the Public Finance Committee and the Health Committee. It can be assumed that the issuance of an opinion will be preceded by a long (and heated) discussion, especially since big doubts will be raised not so much (and in any case not only) about the distribution of funds between the various segments of the system, but above all - about the amount of the planned budget subsidy. It is to amount to PLN 26 billion, while experts estimate that maintaining the current level of access to benefits would require a subsidy of more than PLN 50 billion. The document states that the final amount of the budget subsidy will be determined during work on the state budget, and it can be assumed that it will be increased during the year (as in the previous year and in the current one, when more than PLN 3 billion was "added" to the planned PLN 18.3 billion), but there is no doubt that the NFZ financial plan does not meet the real needs of the system, and above all of the patients.
The NFZ's draft financial plan for 2026 shows that planned revenues are expected to increase by 9.9 percent compared to the revenues set forth in the 2025 financial plan. Benefit costs will increase slightly less - 9.6 percent (of course, we're talking about comparing the 2025 and 2026 plans).
Total revenues were estimated at PLN 217.3 billion (PLN 197 billion in the 2025 plan). Revenues from the health premium were planned at PLN 184.3 billion (PLN 179.8 billion ZUS and PLN 4.5 billion KRUS), with PLN 173.1 billion in 2025 (PLN 168.8 billion and PLN 4.3 billion, respectively).
Outlays for health care services account for 92.55 percent of the fund's costs as specified in the draft financial plan for 2026. They were planned at 201.2 billion zlotys (183.6 billion zlotys in 2025), including, among others:
- PLN 22.8 billion - primary health care (PLN 19.6 billion in 2025),
- PLN 17.4 billion - outpatient specialized care (PLN 15.9 billion),
- PLN 100.1 billion - hospital treatment (PLN 90.1 billion). In these fundamental areas, outlays are growing strongest in POZ - growth in hospital and AOS is not far from the average, assumed, increase in spending. However, it is worth remembering that if additional funds appear during the year, they are directed first and in the lion's share to hospitals.
After parliamentary committees (and the NFZ Council) give their opinions, the draft financial plan will go to the ministers of health and finance for signature. Does next year's have a chance of approval, if it is known that this year's ministers have not signed - and there is no indication that they will? Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna has even said in recent days that ministers' signatures "have become a fetish" and the NFZ can carry out its tasks also on the basis of an unsigned plan. - The legislator has provided for a situation that is not unusual and gives the Fund the opportunity to function without disruption, NFZ President Filip Nowak stressed.
