Poland

Abstract

Abstract This chapter offers an in-depth look at health politics and the universal health system in Poland, financed through social health insurance. It traces the development of the Polish healthcare system under communism, characterized by a complete shift from an insurance system to a state-run Soviet Semashko model of healthcare with some elements of private provision. Since 1989, Polish health policy went through systemic changes which included a shift to a decentralized social health insurance system in the late 1990s and re-centralization in 2001. Polish healthcare politics has been turbulent, marked by political instability matched by a dense network of veto points, including the President and the judiciary, that had an impact on the direction of health reforms. As the chapter highlights, some of the main issues have been high out-of-pocket payments, corruption, and privatization and commercialization of public hospitals.