NFZ: How much did we spend on treatment in 2022?

Specialists from the National Health Fund counted the cost of treating patients in 2022. The analysis looked at medical services and medicines.

- We often hear the question of ''where are my health premiums going''. In the latest report by NFZ analysts, we answer this question. Our calculations show exactly how, on behalf of all the insured, we manage health funds. The data shows that we are spending more and more on treating patients in the public system," stresses Filip Nowak, president of the National Health Fund.

The report also shows in practice how the social solidarity on which the Polish health care system is based works.

What is social solidarity?

In Poland, we have social solidarity in health care. It boils down to the simple principle that every citizen, regardless of age, health status, gender and, above all, regardless of the amount of health premium paid, should receive medical assistance.

- The main principle of social solidarity is the ongoing financing of health care for sick people from the health contribution, which is also paid by healthy people. This is, of course, a big simplification, but it shows the mechanism of how solidarity works," explains Dariusz Dziełak, director of the Office of Public Partnership and Innovation at the National Health Fund headquarters.

We spend more on treating patients in the public system

The National Health Service spent more than PLN 110 billion in 2022 on medical services and drugs that can be tailored to a specific patient or benefit. This is more than PLN 27 billion more than in 2021. For the treatment of the 100 "most expensive" patients, PLN 218 million was allocated. In 2015, it was less than PLN 128 million.

IMPORTANT!

With the word "most expensive" - for the purposes of the report only - the analysts named the patients for whose treatment the National Health Service paid the most. At the same time, these are the sickest patients who required expensive drug therapies, for example.

- It was confirmed that a significant portion of the funds is allocated to a fairly small number of patients. It is interesting to note that in the analyzed area, as in many others, we observe the so-called Pareto Principle: 80% of the budget is allocated to the health needs of the 20% most needy population. The conclusion of the analysis of the distribution of costs per population may be quite surprising to many people. It turns out that almost 31.5 billion zlotys are spent on benefits for - note - 1% of the population (of our country's residents)," comments Filip Urbanski, director of the Department of Analysis, Quality Monitoring and Optimization of Benefits at NFZ Headquarters.

Thus, if we rank the Polish population in terms of the cost of treatment from "most expensive" to "cheapest," the cost of treating the 1% of "most expensive patients" is PLN 31.5 billion of the PLN 110 billion analyzed.

Who is most likely to receive treatment?

NFZ analysts also compared the age and gender of patients with the cost of their treatment. The analysis shows that the NHF spends the most money on treatment for patients in groups:

• 60-64 years
• 65-69 years
• 70-74.

Source: NFZ