Health Problems
The National Heath Fund (NFZ) is in dire financial straits because not only is income from health care premiums lower than assumed, but also some branches have already spent the money they had for refunded medicine. Therefore, hospitals will receive less money from the NFZ and as a result they may not have enough to treat sick people. Due to the dramatic financial situation of the NFZ, hospitals will not only get less money than they should, but the NFZ also wants to save some money on the refund of medicine. Some NFZ branches have exceeded the money intended for refunded medicine. Most of it is spent on extra funding for drugs for asthma, diabetes and heart disease. “We would like to spend more money on treating sick people; however, all the available funds are allocated for the refunding of drugs. We appeal to doctors to be more prudent when writing out prescriptions and offer patients cheaper options. Patients, on the other hand, should not extort medicine from their doctors they do not really need,” says Mariusz Szymański, spokesperson of the NFZ Pomerania regional branch.
Dziennik
November 11, 2009 at 12:50 pm |
Whenever I hear about NFZ financial problems I always wonder what is wrong with it? Who manages its finances? I as every working and insured citizen contribute to the National Health Fund every month, i.e. 9% of my gross salary is transferred into the Fund each month although I do not use free state health care services because my employer has funded me private health care. The private health care subscription funded by employers is very common today and additionally many individuals decide to subscribe to private health centres on their own because they cannot stand waiting in a queue to register with a doctor and then waiting a long time to do any medical tests. Horrible!
Furthermore, be aware that the health care subscription funded by employers is not a free benefit for employees because the value of the subscription is added to their salaries and they have to pay tax and social security contributions on that. Consequently they pay twice to NFZ and for private health care.
I sometimes question myself what would happen if I badly needed to use state health care because my private insurance does not cover hospital treatment for example? Would I be admitted or told we don’t have money, we can’t treat you. And then, I would be force to pay with my own money for private treatment again. So what do I pay for every month?
November 12, 2009 at 8:12 am |
It is the world’s largest black hole. Well, that and ZUS.
November 12, 2009 at 8:49 am |
True. I have on my desk today’s Rzeczpospolita and the article on the first page confirms what you have just written: ‘Large hole in ZUS’ no money for the payment of pensions, disability pensions, and benefits.
In fact, this is my second concern whether I can expect any pension from ZUS when I decide to retire in 30-35 years!
November 12, 2009 at 3:46 pm |
Don’t retire!