CSO: Record health spending.

According to preliminary estimates, current spending on health care in 2023 amounted to PLN 241.6 billion, higher than in 2022 by about PLN 45.4 billion (relative to preliminary data for 2022). Public spending went up considerably, amounting to PLN 197.8 billion (5.8 percent of real GDP) in 2023.

As for private spending, it fell by almost 8 billion zlotys from 2022 to 43.8 billion zlotys (1.3 percent of GDP).

In 2022, the largest stream of money went to hospitals - 42.2 percent of the amount of current spending on health care (in 2021 - 38.4 percent), followed by outpatient health care - 26.8 percent (in 2021 - 25.3 percent).

In the report, the CSO also reports an increase in outlays over the past decade - between 2014 and 2023, public spending on health increased by nearly 154 percent: from PLN 72.9 billion in 2014 to PLN 184.8 billion in 2023, which translates - using the methodology from the 7 percent of GDP for health law - to 7.05 percent of GDP (from 2021, of course).

The authors of the information also highlight the constancy of the upward trend in health spending over the period - both at the planning (year-on-year) and execution stages. - The largest annual increase in health expenditures over the period, according to execution, was in 2023, the information released Wednesday reads.

The figures for 2023 can hardly be considered sensational, but it is worth noting that for the first time ever Poland has broken through the barrier of 7 percent of GDP in total health spending (in 2022 it was 6.4 percent, according to the latest information from the Central Statistical Office, previously reported as high as 6.7 percent). The average for OECD countries - according to the latest Health at a Glance report, published in the fall of 2023 - is 9.2 percent.

Source: CSO