Leszczyna in the Sejm: we have added PLN 21.5 billion to the National Health Fund and it is still not enough. A third subsidy from the budget is needed

• The Minister of Health presented information in the Sejm "on the dramatic and month-by-month worsening financial situation in Polish healthcare". The motion was submitted by the PiS club
• Janusz Cieszyński from PiS spoke, among other things, about the lack of money for hospitals - both to pay for services and for pay rises, and he reminded the government that they had not carried out any reform for over a year and a half
• Izabela Leszczyna emphasized that the current government is paying off the debts of its predecessors. - We have already added PLN 21.5 billion to the National Health Fund from the budget this year and it turned out that it is still not enough - she pointed out, accusing the PiS government of devastating the National Health Fund's finances.

The head of the Ministry of Health, at the request of PiS, presented information to the Sejm "concerning the dramatic and month-by-month deteriorating financial situation in the Polish health care system".

- Karol Nawrocki won Sunday's elections, and throughout the campaign he showed how much you have ruined the Polish healthcare system, and the minister certainly contributed to this success. Unfortunately, patients are also falling victim to this - they pay because the government is unable to pay the bills for the operation of Polish hospitals and clinics - said Janusz Cieszyński from PiS, former deputy minister of health, on behalf of the applicants.

He pointed out that in recent weeks, medical facilities in the Silesian province have received letters that directly state that there is no money to pay for services provided in the first quarter of this year. He also recalled that statutory pay increases for healthcare workers come into effect on July 1, and hospital directors still do not know how much money they will receive for these increases.

- This was your only plan to save the financial crisis, to take this money away from healthcare workers, but now, after the change in the Presidential Palace, it may not be as easy as you thought - he emphasized.

- You started as a minister with a magic wand, and today you are associated only with empty cash, which you wanted to reduce even more by voting to lower the health insurance contribution - he added, addressing Leszczyna. - You failed to take the money from the National Health Fund, so you made a raid on the Medical Fund, from where 4 billion zlotys were taken under the guise of secrecy - he pointed out.

He recalled that the Minister of Finance had not signed the financial plan of the National Health Fund, pointing out that "a new budget year will start soon". He also pointed out the growing financial obligations of hospitals.

- For over a year and a half you have not carried out any reform, nothing, zero, an absolute lack of ambition and this is a picture not only of the Minister and the Ministry of Health, but of this entire government. We have chaos, financial collapse, demotivated employees and patients who have to cope on their own. Why are you doing this? Is this to pay off debts from election campaigns? - he asked.

He also noted that 35,000 people in Warsaw had unsubscribed from municipal primary healthcare centers and moved to private facilities, and "the company they went to sponsors the Rafał Trzaskowski Campus".

He pointed out that until recently, the exchange of potential successors to Izabela Leszczyna was "dominated by the vice-president of the National Health Fund, Jakub Szulc, but now it is said that Bartosz Arłukowicz is to return from Brussels".

- And unfortunately this would probably be a change for the better, maybe under Minister Arłukowicz the Civic Platform MPs would not have to visit hospices and give people potatoes - said Cieszyński.

- Is the National Health Fund in a difficult financial situation? Yes. Is another, third subsidy from the budget needed? Yes. Let's explain what happened that in 2023 the then government was able to add PLN 200 million to the National Health Fund, and we have already added PLN 21.5 billion from the budget this year until June and it turned out that it is still not enough. How did it happen that the National Health Fund took on so many new tasks in 2023? - asked Izabela Leszczyna, referring to the allegations of opponents.

She recalled the tasks transferred to the National Health Fund by the amendment to the Medical Profession Act. - They transferred a number of tasks previously financed from the state budget to the shoulders of the insured, i.e. to the National Health Fund. These were medical rescue services, medicines for seniors and for children and adolescents, medicines for pregnant women, purchase of vaccines, even financing the treatment of AIDS and haemophilia, and highly specialized services. They transferred all of this from the state budget to the National Health Fund. This is a cost of approximately PLN 12 billion - the Minister of Health listed.

- During the pandemic, i.e. in 2020-2021 and a little bit in 2022, hospitals did not treat people as usual, but were financed from a side source. Note: from the debt that the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the coalition of October 15 are already paying off today. Meanwhile, a mountain of money has grown in the National Health Fund, about 25 billion. So they did something that is unacceptable, and instead of spreading it evenly to pay off the Covid health debt, which we are still paying off, they burned this money - said Leszczyna.

She also addressed the issue of remuneration. - There is no healthcare, no healthcare without medical professionals. Good remuneration for medical professionals is very important and is the foundation of the system. However, the most important thing is patient safety and access to healthcare at the highest level. And so we have to manage healthcare financing to balance both of these values, so that they fit into the financial plan of the National Health Fund - she emphasized.

She noted that hospitals do not yet know what the funds for the increases will be, because according to the law, there is time until June 5 to prepare recommendations on this matter - in accordance with the act introduced by the PiS government. - These increases are in the middle of the year. They came up with such a law that the increase always comes into force in the middle of the year. What's more, they came up with a table of coefficients, about which the entire community is actually a bit at odds - she said, referring to the controversy surrounding the act on remuneration.

She also assured that the National Health Fund pays hospitals for overperformance on an ongoing basis. What is more, as she argued, after taking over the government, she also settled hospital bills that her predecessors had not paid.

- When I became the Minister of Health, in 2024 I had to pay over PLN 2.2 billion 337 billion for the overpayments that they did not pay in 2023. Another lie that there is no money for overpayments: we pay for overpayments in the next quarter, if someone was the Deputy Minister of Health, they should know that. We paid for 2024, and we will pay for the first quarter of 2025 in the quarter that ends in June - announced Minister Leszczyna.

As many as 60 MPs signed up for the questions. They asked, among other things, about the use of budget subsidies, how to find the missing money for the National Health Fund for this year, whether the government has a path to reach the European level of health care financing.

Questions were also asked about the hospital reform. - We will carry out a systemic reform in which the government will not close any hospitals. If departments are being closed today, it is not because there is no money, but because there are no doctors. (…) The district hospital, I will repeat this once again, must be tailored to the health needs, and not to the imagination of the ruling politicians - emphasized Izabela Leszczyna.

She appealed not to scare patients. She emphasized that the people who complain the most about the state of healthcare are those who have been treated in a hospital for a very long time or have not been treated at all. - Patients who have been treated recently are leaving and are satisfied with the care of our doctors - she assured.

She also referred to allegations of unauthorized use of funds from the Medical Fund. - I always transfer subsidies to the National Health Fund, which you asked about, in accordance with the law, and the oncology competition, which everyone here was shouting about, has nothing to do with it. We will decide on the competitions from the Medical Fund planned for this year - oncology, to which we have added PLN 300 million, i.e. a total of PLN 4.5 billion for oncology. This summer we will decide on the competition for psychiatry. Thanks to the funds from the KPO, 3,000 additional beds will be created for long-term care, because we are an aging society - she listed.

She also spoke about investments in psychiatry, expanding reimbursement indications, increasing the percentage of perinatal anesthesia, new programs such as Moje Zdrowie, or comprehensive treatment of endometriosis. She also mentioned the government in vitro program, thanks to which, according to the latest data, 1.5 thousand children have already been born.

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