Izabela Leszczyna: The Ministry is working on reversing the pyramid of health benefits

The European Economic Congress is underway in Katowice, and among the dozen or so thematic tracks was one on health care. The health debates were inaugurated on Wednesday, with a system session, which was preceded by a presentation of the results of a survey conducted by the National Research Group, which asked Poles what they thought about closing unprofitable hospitals and whether they use private health care. The results of the survey were presented by OGB's president, Lukasz Pawlowski. - The first question we asked was about closing hospitals that are unprofitable. 90 percent of Poles answered that they should not. This is a pretty clear signal from citizens that the financial situation of hospitals is not the most important thing at all. We also asked Poles whether they use private health care. 80 percent declared that they do. Why? The vast majority answered that the main reason was the much shorter waiting time to see a specialist. Other reasons, such as better quality of services, are much less important," said Lukasz Pawlowski.

At the same time, one in two Poles believes that the private system "preys" on public health care (this is how the question was phrased). Seventy-five percent of Poles see the solution to Polish hospitals' problems in increasing the number of doctors working in them.

- The problems are largely due to the fact that we have not fully defined what is the public sector and what is the private sector. To me, a public system is one that is publicly funded. Private is the one financed from the private pockets of citizens. So where does the moment of nervousness appear? In my opinion, it appears precisely when a public entity provides public services and when a private entity provides public services," commented Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna, while noting that it is not the role of the ministry to deepen divisions between sectors. Leszczyna added that in both sectors it is possible to identify entities that perform their tasks very well and those that do it less well.

At the same time, the head of the health ministry stressed that Poland has no reason to be ashamed of the public system, and we certainly don't need to be ashamed of what it guarantees. This is, according to Minister Leszczyna, one of the reasons why private health policies are not very popular. - Compared to countries like the US or the UK, the basket of guaranteed benefits is really broad. We even finance the treatment of rare diseases under drug programs," said Leszczyna, citing as an example the treatment of SMA with a very expensive gene therapy.

Leszczyna confirmed in Katowice that the ministry is working on reversing the pyramid of health services. The result of this work is to be a list of benefits that should be performed in AOS and not in hospitals. These benefits, Leszczyna said, will be priced in such a way as to provide an incentive for providers and doctors to perform them in outpatient care, without hospitalization.