On Friday evening, the assumptions of the amendment to the act were published, which - if passed - will radically change the financial situation of health care. The direction of changes, however, will be exactly the opposite than what PiS announced in 2015: at that time, they wanted the financing of health to be taken over by the budget. Today - that virtually all expenses are covered by health insurance contributions by the National Health Fund.
Health expenditure will be entirely covered by the National Health Fund?
Published Oct. 3, 2022 13:49
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Responsible for the preparation of a project that will actually "relieve" the budget from billions in spending on health is ... the minister of health. Contributions are to be sufficient, among other things, to finance the tasks of medical rescue teams (on Friday, Deputy Minister Waldemar Kraska boasted that about PLN 4 billion was allocated in next year's rescue budget), for the purchase of all vaccines included in the PSO, for drugs for seniors and women pregnant and performing over a dozen of the most highly specialized procedures.
The published document raises a lot of questions. For example? There was a proposal to use the NFZ supplementary fund, which left PLN 10 billion after last year's failure to perform services. The government will want the funds to be added to ... the COVID-19 Counteracting Fund. Why would the National Health Fund transfer money to the government, instead of financing itself, for example, the operation of hospitals or covid departments or the purchase of vaccines (especially in the context of postponing the obligation to finance the purchase of other vaccines)?
It is also not known why such changes are to be enacted as part of the amendment to the Act on the professions of doctor and dentist, since they concern benefits financed from public funds - perhaps the ministry is still working on some regulations regarding actual medical professions, only at the stage of will not to disclose them?
What is certain: the termination of budget financing of some benefits means that the Fund will have less money to keep access to benefits at the current level. Moreover, some of the tasks that the Fund would pay for are performed regardless of the insurance status (medical emergency, free medicines for pregnant women, purchase of vaccines). These are also tasks which - as PiS politicians have repeatedly emphasized - are a direct task of the state, related to internal security and public health, and therefore it was the state budget, not the insurance payer, that guaranteed their financing.
