2026-03-05 07:36
publication
2026-03-05 07:36
From Thursday, free treatment is only available to Ukrainian citizens who are victims of torture, including: children and pregnant women. The remaining Ukrainians who fled to Poland before the war must pay health insurance contributions to use the public system.
After Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Poland created regulations enabling the legal stay of refugees from Ukraine and their use of health care without health insurance in Poland. Wide access has been limited in recent months.
On September 30 last year, adult Ukrainians who did not have health insurance in Poland lost the right, among others, to: for reimbursement of medicines and dental treatment. However, despite the lack of insurance, they could still use primary health care, outpatient specialist care, and had access to hospital treatment.
However, from Thursday, only adult citizens of Ukraine who have been victims of torture, rape, as well as children and adolescents, pregnant or postpartum women, and people with a certificate of residence in a collective accommodation center are entitled to free health care.
– The remaining Ukrainian citizens who came to Poland after the outbreak of the war will have to pay health insurance contributions in order to have the right to use the public health care system – Wojciech Rożdżeński, assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw, specialist in medical and pharmaceutical law, told PAP.
The condition for using free care is to have a PESEL number and UKR status (confirming legal residence). A number of benefits are excluded from free benefits, including: infertility treatment and cataract removal.
The National Health Fund emphasized that the condition for access to the full range of services is to have any type of health insurance: compulsory or voluntary.
Changes in access to free health care result from the Act on the termination of solutions resulting from the Act on assistance to citizens of Ukraine in connection with an armed conflict on the territory of this country, which enters into force on March 5.
In addition to victims of torture, rape, as well as children and adolescents, pregnant or postpartum women and people with a certificate of residence in a collective accommodation center, people injured and injured in war will still have the right to access to free treatment. In 2022, 143 people evacuated and injured during the war in Ukraine were treated in Poland, in 2023 – 118, and in 2024 – 36.
The receipts to the National Health Fund of health contributions from Ukrainian citizens in 2022–2024 amount to over PLN 9 billion. However, the cost of benefits provided to Ukrainians who came to Poland after the outbreak of a full-scale war amounted to PLN 2.1 billion in this period.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022. According to the Ministry of Interior and Administration, from February 24, 2022 to December 31, 2024, approximately 1.6 million people, mainly women and children, found shelter in Poland. (PAP)
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