At the end of October, the National Health Fund received support in the form of PLN 3.5 billion in subsidies and PLN 1 billion in bonds, which resulted from the decision of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. Additional funds in the amount of PLN 3.56 billion are to come from the Medical Fund, which gives a total of approximately PLN 8 billion. The Ministry of Health explains that the original shortfall amount of PLN 14 billion was the maximum value, and the final deficit may be smaller.
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Amendment to the Medical Fund Act and increase in subsidies
The Ministry of Health presented a draft amendment to the Medical Fund Act, which would allow for the transfer of an additional PLN 3.56 billion to the National Health Fund in 2025. The project also assumes an increase in the limit for financing excess health services for people under 18 years of age from the current PLN 840 million to PLN 4.4 billion.
The Ministry emphasizes that the initial subjective subsidy for the National Health Fund for 2025, amounting to PLN 18.35 billion, was increased to over PLN 31 billion thanks to the decisions of the Minister of Health, Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda, and the Minister of Finance, Andrzej Domański. The ministry noted that additional funds in the amount of PLN 400 million to increase the subjective subsidy were provided by the decision of the Minister of Health of November 6. Moreover, based on the decision of the Minister of Finance of July 1, the National Health Fund received PLN 1.58 billion to increase its reserve fund.
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Rising costs and financial prospects of the National Health Fund
The Ministry of Health pointed out that Prime Minister Donald Tusk ordered the Minister of Finance to transfer Treasury securities with a nominal value of PLN 922 million to increase the reserve fund of the National Health Fund. The ministry's announcement emphasized that “the priority is to ensure the health safety of patients.”
According to the Ministry of Health, the need to increase budgetary resources for the National Health Fund results, among other things, from the implementation of the Act on Remuneration and the transfer of financing for emergency medical services and free medicines to the Fund. The draft amendment to the Medical Fund Act was submitted to the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers with a request to consider it in an accelerated manner. The regulations, which would enter into force on December 15, assume the transfer of an additional PLN 3.6 billion to the National Health Fund in 2025.
The ministry noted that due to the “significantly underestimated” limit, most of the costs of excess health services for children are financed by the National Health Fund, not the Medical Fund. In 2024, the National Health Fund covered above-limit benefits for children in the amount of PLN 2.4 billion from health insurance contributions. In previous years, the amounts of unfinanced benefits amounted to PLN 1.5 billion in 2023 and PLN 1 billion in 2022, respectively.
At the beginning of November, hospitals in Poland reported postponements of planned admissions due to delays in settlements with the National Health Fund. Previous data indicated that the Fund was short of approximately PLN 14 billion to settle benefits this year. The Ministry of Health estimates that in 2026 the financial gap of the National Health Fund may reach PLN 23 billion.
