"Have heart attacks until June. The strokes to May. For August there will be no money” – it is simply a bitter, ironic phrase by Paweł Usądzka from the Confederacywhich rightly appeared in the discussion on the state of the Polish wellness system. It perfectly reflects the increasing tension around government backing policy Donald Tusk. This government has drastically cut backing to hospitals, which will take distant many patients' chances of effective diagnostics, while others will be forced to usage private services.
Tusk is dismantling the wellness system. The main problem is the mechanics of over-execution, i.e. benefits provided by hospitals over the contracted limits determined by National wellness Fund. In theory, this strategy is intended to guarantee control of public spending. In practice, however, it leads to a situation where medical institutions are faced with a dramatic choice: to treat patients and make losses, or to limit their activities to avoid financial disaster.
Statement by the Minister on the implementation of government policy Maciej Berkaccording to which "The infirmary that treats more patients than the set limit is unfair"has become a symbol of this approach. For critics, this is proof of a reversal of strategy logic – alternatively of premium the effectiveness and availability of treatment, the mechanics punishes for excessive medical activity.
The scale of the problem is visible in circumstantial data. In 1 hospital, the number of monthly MRI tests dropped from about 900 to just 100. This means that up to 700–800 patients per period lose access to diagnostics. The situation is akin in another procedures: for colonoscopy or gastroscopy, the NFZ covers only about 60% of the cost of overexecution, and for CT and resonance – about 50%. The remainder must be covered by the hospital.
Under specified conditions, limiting the number of studies is not a medical decision, but an economical decision. Any additional benefit shall mean a financial failure which may jeopardise the stableness of the full facility in the long term. infirmary directors are increasingly admitting that they are forced to “close the door” to patients not due to the fact that they deficiency equipment or staff, but due to the fact that they deficiency money.
The situation is further compounded by the budget deficit of the NFZ, estimated at respective billion PLN. In the face of specified a financial gap, the fund limits over-execution payments, which automatically translates into a decrease in the availability of medical services. The consequence is the extension of queues and the expanding hazard of delays in diagnosing serious diseases.
Paradoxically, 2026 was declared a year of prevention by the government. On the 1 hand, the importance of early detection of diseases is stressed, on the another hand, limiting the backing of diagnostic research. This contradiction is frequently referred to as an example of the inconsistency of wellness policy and the hypocrisy of the Tusk government.
Critics of the fresh solutions say that we are not dealing with an accidental failure of the system, but with the consequence of informed budgetary decisions. In their assessment, reducing over-execution backing leads to a gradual simplification in the function of public wellness protection. Government supporters argue that spending control is essential to prevent the destabilisation of public finances.
Regardless of interpretation, 1 thing is certain: the current financing model puts the state wellness strategy in a slow fall. If hospitals balance between a life-saving mission and the request to keep financial liquidity, human wellness has ceased to be of any importance to the authorities. As a result, patients increasingly become invisible victims of budgetary constraints.
OUR COMMENTS: Everything indicates that the problem of over-execution will deepen, and the availability of medical services may proceed to decline, with real consequences for the wellness and life of citizens. In practice, it is simply a quiet and slow privatisation of the Polish wellness service. This may be the right thing to do, but unfortunately, we inactive have simultaneous, forced, ever-increasing contributions to wellness insurance, which, in the event of reduced availability of services, hurts the most.
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