ByadminFunding of Poland healthcare could be increased by almost 12.5% in the next year – NFZ plan
More than PLN 102 billion are planned to subsidize health services by the provincial branches of the National Health Fund (NFZ) for the next year. This is PLN 11.3 billion more than the financial plan of the NFZ for the current year. Thus, the increase in funding is 12.47%.
The regional branches of the Fund are mainly subsidized from the NFZ budget, but part of the costs is covered from the state budget. Therefore, it can be assumed that in the end there will be even more funds in the Polish health care system.
The Mazovian branch of the Fund is one of the most financially intensive, as the capital of Poland is located in the Mazovian Voivodeship. The cost of inpatient medical care will increase by PLN 685 million according to the plan of this department for the next year.
The department plans to allocate for outpatient care PLN 228 million more than this year. There will be spent on drug addiction cure within the framework of inpatient treatment more than PLN 213 million and an additional PLN 177 million – to pay for primary healthcare.
What is NFZ financial plan?
Each year, the President of the Foundation prepares a financial plan for the NFZ, balanced in terms of income and expenses. The draft document must be submitted for consideration by the Fund Council and parliamentary committees by July 1. The plan indicates the total costs of the NFZ and a breakdown by provincial branches.
Funds to cover the costs to subsidize medical services for insured persons are distributed between these provincial branches, taking into account:
- the number of insured persons registered with the NFZ voivodeship office;
- separate groups of the insured, considering age and gender;
- certain groups of medical services, including highly specialized services;
- health risks corresponding to certain groups of the insured.
The President of the Fund prepares a draft NFZ financial plan for the next year based on the forecast of income and expenses of financial plans of individual branches of the Fund drawn up by their directors. The President of the Foundation consults with the Ministers of Finance and Health in the process of drafting the plan.
The finished project is submitted for consideration by the Council of the Foundation, the Committee on Public Finance and the Health Committee of the Seimas of the Republic of Poland. They prepare opinions on the financial plan and then the draft document, together with the views, is submitted to the Minister of Health again. He consults with the Minister of Finance and finally approves the financial plan of the NFZ.
The President of the Fund may change the financial plan of the NFZ if a situation arises that could not have been foreseen at the time of its determination or approval.
Poland’s GDP in 2021 – forecast
Poland’s GDP will amount to PLN 2,273.6 billion in 2021, according to preliminary estimates by the State Statistics Office. This means that about PLN 120.5 billion should be allocated to health care. Quite a lot, isn’t it? This amount includes not only the NFZ budget but also the state budget expenditures for individual centralized programs.
It should be noted that 2020–2021 will certainly be difficult due to the pandemic and rising unemployment, so the NFZ may experience a funding gap. Thus, according to forecasts of the Ministry of Finance of Poland, more than 1.3 million people will be unemployed in 2020 and real wages are unlikely to change.
However, such a dramatic forecast for unemployment is seen by experts as contradictory. However, it was it, which served as the basis for the NFZ plan for the next year.
What about the current availability of medical services?
The BioStat Research and Development Center conducted a survey “Consumer behaviour during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic” in a group of 1,000 Poles, representative of gender and age. The results of the study indicate that the availability of medical services and specialists has significantly decreased over the past 3 months.
Thus, 72.9% of Poles experienced difficulties accessing a doctor in June 2020. This indicator is almost identical to the results obtained a month earlier, when 73.7% of patients felt limitations. Since March, when the quarantine began, the percentage of patients who find it difficult to obtain medical advice has increased by 15.9%.
The pandemic, according to respondents, also affects the quality of treatment – almost 3 out of 4 Poles believe that it has become worse than before the outbreak, and only less than 4% of respondents report that the quality of treatment has improved.
There more than half know the date of the next necessary visit among those undergoing a course of treatment requiring regular contact with a specialist. However, 42.4% of respondents expect that a medical consultation may be postponed.
In general, 60% of respondents said they were ready to use the advice of specialists. The most demanded doctors, according to the survey, are: gynaecologist (over 22%), ophthalmologist (17%), dermatologist (14%) and orthopaedist (10%).
