Emergency health care

Nothing is happening that we don't know: rescheduling of treatments, restrictions on patient admissions to drug programs also took place in the last quarter of 2024. It's hard to talk about surprise, especially since it was already warned that things would be worse next year. And - it is worse. Money is in short supply more and more. Which, by the way, was also announced and almost exactly calculated: during the work on the budget bill for 2025, Together MPs Marcelina Zawisza and Adrian Zandberg fought for an amendment increasing the subject subsidy to the National Health Fund by PLN 20 billion. The good feeling of the ruling coalition MPs - especially the Civic Coalition - manifested by the statement that during the year "the budget will add" turned out to be not entirely justified. Even if the budget adds(s), the gap is still gigantic, amounting to several billion zlotys.

- This is a disaster. We're talking about people who could go back to work, who have their responsibilities, and they're just finding out that because the Ministry of Health and this government are so inept that they can't find the funds to pay for their treatment, they're going to have their treatments postponed," commented Health Minister Marcelina Zawisza (Polsat News), recalling her amendment last year. - Now we're in exactly the situation we talked about last year, so it's not a surprise, it's not something we didn't know about as a society. We all saw that this budget has too few funds for the treatment of Polish women and men," Zawisza pointed out.

When it comes to learning from mistakes, politicians don't do very well - at least in the area of health care. The 2026 budget was arranged, in the health part, so that at least a $23 billion gap is known at the start. The situation is a bit different, because a year ago MPs used a displacement mechanism, questioning the calculation of the gap at "as much as" PLN 20 billion (the biggest optimists said that maybe the premium runoff would be higher, well - it turned out that the payer also has a problem with revenues, and in fact the gap against the plan exceeds PLN 20 billion). The National Health Service stresses that so much money will be missing if the regulations don't change - first and foremost regarding the law on minimum wages. Indeed, there is more and stronger talk about changes to the law - but a year ago this topic was also on the wall, and it was also said that the law has fulfilled its purpose, employees are earning decent wages. And that gigantic contracts need to be brought under control - even a year ago it was revealed, for example, that contracts of 200-300 thousand zlotys per month occur in indebted hospitals. What real action has been taken, aside from talks?

Listening to trade union representatives, it is difficult at this point to imagine agreeing to any significant restrictions in the minimum wage law. The unions are not yet threatening, but they are certainly warning: - People will take to the streets.

The medical association points out that the most effective way to solve the problem of galloping contract rates is through systemic solutions, including - hospital consolidation. It's hard to deny the right, but this process must take time, and the system is suffocating here and now. And in such a mode, an emergency mode, decisions must be made to decompress it financially. Effectively, and not just in the symbolic sphere.