On Monday, the Senate Health Committee discussed the assumptions of the bill on the professions of doctor and dentist, which provides for the transfer to the National Health Fund of financing tasks, which are currently under the responsibility of the state budget. Deputy Minister of Health Maciej Miłkowski admitted that the government bill will be processed separately, without public consultations.
In the Senate about the "jump to the NFZ cash"
Published Oct. 18, 2022 06:29
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The agenda of the Senate Health Committee sounded a bit shocking, because in the first point it was written: Jump to the NHF cash register. Deputy Minister Maciej Miłkowski began his speech with this, stating that when he received the invitation, he was convinced that the invitation was issued by "some newspaper" and not a parliamentary committee.
However, apart from the formula, the subject of the meeting corresponded to the actual state in one hundred percent, because the project prepared by the Ministry of Health transfers the financing of, among others, highly specialized services, medical rescue, medicines for seniors 75+ and for pregnant women, and preventive vaccinations from the state budget to the National Health Fund. It also provides for a one-off replenishment of the COVID-19 Counteracting Fund from the National Health Fund supplementary fund.
At the beginning of the meeting, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, Beata Małecka-Libera, admitted that the title of the meeting is quite shocking, although true. - This change is not only a jump on the Fund's resources, but an attempt on health - she said. Małecka-Libera pointed out that for the first time in history, the Minister of Health himself submits a project to reduce funding for health care. She also stressed that such fundamental changes "cannot be dealt with by an insertion into the Act on the Medical Profession".
Deputy Minister of Health Maciej Miłkowski informed the senators that the bill is not yet available, but the ministry hopes "that it will be soon referred to the Sejm". He also admitted that the project will not be subject to public consultations (although the ministry will talk about it next Friday with social partners as part of the RDS - ed.), And will be processed in the so-called separate mode.
How does the ministry explain the idea of withdrawing the budget from financing health tasks? First of all, according to Deputy Minister Miłkowski, it is about organizing the health financing system. - The Ministry of Health should not perform the same tasks as theoretically tasks of the National Health Fund. There is no point in duplicating professional employees who are dedicated to the Fund when it comes to financing health services - he explained. - The Fund is the main and the only institution responsible for financing health services, it does it best - he maintained. Secondly (though also in connection with the cleaning up), the ministry thus meets the expectations of patient organizations (!), Which were to complain about the multitude of "tabs" from which health services are financed. This may be astonishing, considering that it was patient organizations - including primarily those with hemophilia, whose treatment is also supposed to "emigrate" from the state budget - that were the first to alert the media and experts about the planned change at the end of September.
During the discussion, senators asked what the sudden change of concept resulted from. - Earlier, you claimed that the dispersion of financing sources is beneficial for the system, you argued that separate streams for medicines for seniors are needed, that a Medical Fund is needed. Now you claim that it will be better if the National Health Fund will be responsible for everything, reminded Wojciech Konieczny. Senators emphasized that even if changes in financing health care should really be considered, it should be done calmly, in the process of extensive consultations and - above all - with financial guarantees. Real, and not those set out in the 7 percent act. GDP for health. - You probably found out that it is the statutory 6 percent. You will achieve GDP (two years ago - ed.) Thanks to high inflation and higher premium revenues. The problem is that you do not transfer money from the National Health Fund to healthcare providers on an ongoing basis. You are watching hospitals get into debt and patients have problems with access to treatment - points Konieczny.
The meeting was also attended by the president of the National Health Fund, Filip Nowak. He admitted that the draft had not been consulted "yet" at the National Health Fund and assessed that it was difficult for him to refer to the provisions. However, he stated that when it comes to the implementation of new tasks, there will be no problem. - Of course, the financial possibilities are always limited by the plan, but maybe to illustrate the financial strength of the National Health Fund I will say that the original plan for 2022 for benefits was PLN 107 billion, currently after the correction it is PLN 124 billion, and for the next PLN 136 billion - he said. - This increase in the financial plan guarantees the stability of the implementation of tasks facing the National Health Fund and I believe that we will be able to cope with new ones - he added.
