There is a draft budget for 2025

According to the law, in 2025 we are to spend a minimum of 6.5 percent of GDP from two years ago - and that's what it will be, or even a little more. 600 million zlotys, as this is the "cap" planned by the Minister of Finance, is an almost imperceptible amount in the scale of the entire health budget, although in health care every zloty is worth its weight in gold. The scale of needs, however, is much greater: according to estimates by the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs contained in the Health Care Financing Monitor, the gap between the system's needs and the level of funding may exceed PLN 20 billion.

In real terms, health spending will amount to about 5.6 percent of GDP (as of 2025) - only 0.9 percentage points more than defense spending (4.7 percent of GDP), which is also given absolute priority by the current government, which, given the geopolitical situation, is not surprising.

However, the low financing of health care - even with the real percentage of GDP we spend on health growing (gradually and very slowly), Poland ranks among the last among EU countries - has very real consequences that will grow. Financial problems are already making themselves known, moreover. Hospital directors are receiving information - conveyed more or less directly - that in the second half of this year the NHF may have problems financing services performed beyond the limit. This means, no more and no less, but the end of "making up health debt from the pandemic era." In 2022-2023, hospitals were even encouraged and incentivized to provide the maximum number of services possible, and the Fund paid for them, even if not on time, with little delay. At the moment, it is very likely that we will see a return to a situation in which scheduled services, scheduled for the last months of the year, will be postponed until the following year - obviously those that are subject to limits.