Medical Fund in the Senate

The Senate Health Committee is recommending approval of the revised Medical Fund Law without amendments. The vote will take place on Thursday, but there will be no surprise: a race against time is underway for the decision to take effect as soon as possible. At stake - 3.6 billion zlotys in cash, with which the Medical Fund will inject into the budget of the National Health Service, and an "abolition" for the annual premium, which the budget has not yet paid this year.

If the scenario planned by the government comes to pass - and that it will, the course of the discussion both in the SC and in the plenary session of the upper house testified - the bill will go to the president's signature later this week. In the case of urgent projects, the head of state has seven days to make a decision: the health minister and representatives of the NFZ have been vocal about their hopes that the president - despite the fact that his bill on the same issue has been stalled by the Sejm - will sign the bill, for the sake of patients and the system's finances.

Although the Senate will not - all signs point to it - make any surprises, this does not mean that there were no pinches during the discussion. Wojciech Konieczny, a senator from the Left and until recently deputy minister of health, expressed surprise during the committee's discussion at the urgent mode of work on the bill. - Why are we working on the amendment so late, in an urgent mode, without a longer debate, without consultations, when the premium loan was known about since March? Health Minister Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda was informed about it by me in July," said Wojciech Konieczny.

- It is difficult for me to answer why the amendment of this law was not proposed in March, because at that time I was not supervising the Health Ministry's budget and also the Medical Fund expenditures themselves. That was the responsibility of another deputy minister," answered Deputy Minister Katarzyna Kacperczyk. - We submitted the bill as soon as possible. The draft was extensively consulted with the Medical Fund Council, which met several times on the matter, so as to reflect the position and that of the social side, but also of all institutions, including representatives of the President. It was also in inter-ministerial consultations and was presented as quickly as possible," she added.

Senator Waldemar Kraska asked whether the 4 billion zlotys that flowed into the NFZ in the spring had already been spent. He did not receive an answer, but the answer is obvious - they have been spent, specifically to regulate part of the overrun of services performed in 2024. Members of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), for example, reminded him of this during the discussion in the Sejm, pointing out that the law sanctions the actual state of affairs, and the money that should flow to the FM as an annual contribution "is not there and will not be." At least this year, because the law stipulates an increase in the contribution in subsequent years to guarantee funding for investment projects already underway.

Karol Nawrocki announced that while he approves of the FM's transfer of PLN 3.6 billion for excess services for children and adolescents, he does not agree with the cancellation of the contribution - it is not known whether the MZ managed to convince the president on this issue, but such an effort was certainly made - the Diet, through amendments, introduced important elements of the presidential draft into the government's bill, namely the creation of two subfunds (rare diseases in children and infrastructure for defense needs).