Tax deduction for a private doctor. PSL also has a plan to heal the system

Changes in the hospital network, transfer of sickness contributions from ZUS to the National Health Fund, contributions including: judges – these are some of the ideas for health care reform that politicians of the Polish People's Party are working on. These proposals were presented, among others, Minister of Health.

The reform project was prepared together with representatives of the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs. Its assumptions – as PAP learned – were presented on Thursday to the head of the Ministry of Health, Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda. He also knows about it, among others: Minister for supervision over the implementation of government policy, Maciej Berek.

The government has no courage?

It is not yet known whether the project will be considered as a government project.

– I was asked who would sponsor this project. So I said that if the government does not have the courage, I (…) can take responsibility and carry out this project through the club and submit it to the Sejm as a member of parliament – declared PSL MP Marek Sawicki in an interview with PAP.

In his opinion health care reform should start with structuring the hospital network. – Hospital management should be subordinated to regional hospitals, former provincial hospitals. So that hospitals do not compete for patients and medical staff, including doctors. Because today we have a lot of district hospitals with a lot of departments, but in most of them the wind blows – added Sawicki.

The PSL MP noted that in each region, the hospital network may be organized differently, for example due to the population in a given region. In his opinion, where maintaining wards is unprofitable, patients should be guaranteed transport to a facility with specialists.

Full-time doctors

The information provided to us by Sawicki shows that the changes will also affect doctors themselves, because – as we learned – the project proposes new rules regarding their employment. Contracts are to be replaced with full-time positions, which is intended to prevent simultaneous work in several facilities.

The project devoted a lot of space to contributions. Its authors propose, among other things, that sickness contributions be transferred from ZUS to the National Health Fund. According to Sawicki, this will help tighten the system and bring up to PLN 4 billion in savings per year. Another several billion zlotys per year will be generated by contributions to uniformed services and judges.

Will uniforms and judges pay contributions?

Asked about issues of contributions paid by farmers, the PSL MP noted that he was open to discussion. – If we agree to include the entire uniformed services and judges in the system, then of course we also need to talk about farmers – the PSL MP emphasized in an interview with PAP. He also emphasized that it is necessary to clearly distinguish who is a farmer and who is not. – If we carried out a thorough inspection, (…) we would have a situation where we only have PLN 450,000 in KRUS. insured, not 1.3 million people as it is today, he added.

Tax changes are also intended to help tighten the system. – It's also worth considering this introduce a tax deduction for those using private medical servicese.g. 10 percent the value of this service – explains Sawicki. – Then we have a situation where the system will tighten. (…) We calculate this (savings – PAP) in our solutions again at another PLN 16 billion, and today (…) I heard from the minister that it may be up to PLN 60 billion in the gray zone – said Sawicki.

The Left's health tax

On Wednesday, Left politicians talked about their ideas for changes in health care. They postulate, among others: health tax instead of health insurance contribution – it would be 12%. The tax-free amount would be PLN 30,000. zloty. The money for treatment is also to come from fat tax and excise duty on alcohol.

– The Left came to the conference, perhaps having heard that we would be consulting the project with the minister, and proposed theses. Nice theses, but the question is, how can the durability of the health care system be based on a tax deduction, which, according to the Left, should reduce alcohol and fat consumption? So we assume a source of income that should decrease quickly, Sawicki said.

Sawicki said that he would like to present the project of changes in the health service during Saturday's PSL General Council. If it receives the green light there, it should be presented to the Sejm in January.

Two medical summits were held at the beginning of December: organized by the Minister of Health Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda and President Karol Nawrocki. They focused on the problems of financing health care. The National Health Fund deficit next year is estimated at approximately PLN 23 billion. The budget plan for 2026 assumes that PLN 247.8 billion will be allocated to health care. (PAP)

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