On Friday we are to find out the ideas of Donald Tusk’s government for a revolution in health care. Draft bills which have been talked about since the beginning of the year will be presented in Krynica by the Minister of Health – Ewa Kopacz.
[wyimek]57 bln PLN National Health Fund will spend this year on treatment[/wyimek]
The direction of future changes – it was the topic brought up yesterday in Krynica, among others, by the former Prime Minister Krzysztof Bielecki. „For me, as an economist, the direction seems to be obvious. In its analysis of systems from about 60 countries, the Monetary Fund pointed out that switching from a centralized system to an insurance system is a dominating tendency,” Bielecki said at a panel devoted to competition among payers, i. e. institutions which receive our premiums. For the time being there is only one common payer in Poland – the National Health Fund (NFZ), and according to experts and NFZ itself, this state of affairs is blocking competitive development. The question, however, is how to introduce changes to ensure the damage done does not outweigh the benefits? Kopacz mentioned recently a pilot program consisting of the introduction of a few insurance companies in one Voivodship. Also, the company Ernst & Young, participating in the works of Bielecki’s council, thought about the potentially best solutions.
Fundamental competitive conditions were fulfilled by: Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Israel, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland. However, the solution implemented in the Netherlands scored the highest number of points. Citizens can choose any fund, which cannot turn their application down. „We have a system of subsidies and distributing insurance risk,” admits Wynand van de Ven from the Erasmusa University in Rotterdam.
Łukasz Zalicki from Ernst & Young asked experts present at the panel whether, in ten years time, a few competitive funds treated equally could be operating in Poland. Vice Minister of Health Jakub Szulc admitted that such changes are necessary.
