Reimbursement right finally assigned to patient

The government's decision means that the right to reimbursement (including 100 percent reimbursement) is finally assigned to the patient. At the moment, prescriptions for drugs on the "S" and "OJ" lists, i.e. reimbursed drugs, free of charge for seniors over 65 and under 18, can only be issued by doctors working in the public system, and even that - not all of them (initially, only PCPs could do it, then the authorization was extended to doctors of other specialties, both in AOS and hospital, but only within the framework of the National Health Service).

Following the change in the law, prescriptions for free drugs and medical devices that children (the "OJ" list) and seniors (the "S" list) are entitled to will be able to be issued by all doctors, as well as nurses and midwives who are authorized to do so. The government anticipates that the new regulations will increase spending on subsidies for free medicines by more than PLN 400 million. However, there are no additional funds for this - the Health Ministry justifies that in the National Health Fund's financial plan for 2025, total reimbursement expenses increase by nearly PLN 3 billion compared to the current financial plan, which also covers this additional expense. However, spending on free drugs rose sharply in the third quarter of this year, and NFZ data shows that after nine months of the year, the plan in this regard was nearly 90 percent executed. This calls into question the claim that enough money was planned, taking into account the new burden.

The bill proposes to expand the authority of pharmacists to issue prescriptions for vaccines. At the moment, they can issue pharmacist prescriptions for flu vaccines - but only full-paid ones. This causes a large group of people to face a choice: a full-paid vaccine (often combined, by the way, with a payment for the vaccination itself, because the National Health Service reimburses vaccination only to certain patients) at the pharmacy, for it is quick and convenient, or a longer, though cheaper, path - first the prescription, then the purchase of the vaccine (often also - the need to return to the clinic, because, for example, pregnant women or children and adolescents cannot be vaccinated in pharmacies).

After the change in regulations, pharmacists will be able to issue prescriptions for all recommended vaccinations available at pharmacies and will be able to take reimbursement into account.