Sławomir Mentzen in the Sejm on behalf of the Confederation's Members' Club on the bill amending the Public-funded wellness Care Act, 27 November 2024.
– Today, we are debating the wellness contribution, a subject that lies at the border between 2 areas of activity of the state above average ruined by almost 20 years of Platform and Law and Law and Justice. Let us start with the promises that were made for Poles before the erstwhile elections. Concret 34th Civic Platform: We'll go back to a flat-rate wellness contribution system.
This peculiar 1 was then repeated in a coalition agreement in which it says: We will decision distant from the oppressive tax-contributory system, e.g. by introducing favourable and clear rules for the calculation of wellness contributionsj.
Not only did the Citizens' Platform promise to return to erstwhile rules on wellness contributions. We besides have 12 3rd Way guarantees, where 1 of the promises is: Withdrawal of the Polish Governance in the field of wellness contributions. In March of this year, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamish repeated these words at his program convention, saying: We will change the rules for collecting the wellness contribution for entrepreneurs. This is simply a ruthless and non-negotiable coalition deal. If we can't do this, we won't sign another projects.. Simon Holovnia added:I'm signing off on it. The question of wellness contributions is ours to be or not to be in the coalition. We put this thesis very hard and very bright.
Unfortunately, with all these announcements, with all these promises, this very hard and clear setting of the substance again, small has come up. This bill we're discussing present is just cosmetic.
It is limited to 2 things: to remove the wellness contribution from the sale of fixed assets, which is, of course, good, it is simply a good direction, but in no way, unlike announcements, it does not simplify the calculation of the wellness contribution, it complicates it.
Second issue, i.e. lowering the minimum wellness contribution to 9% from 70% of the minimum wage, which gives monthly savings at the level of dizzying 100 PLN. There's not much more to talk about. It's a cosmetic, it's not a realization of any promises made.
On the another hand, the problem that affects the Polish wellness strategy is not a deficiency of money. Poland
the wellness strategy is inefficient by its design. It is based on a state monopoly, NFZ. If something's a monopolist, it can't work well. If it is inactive state, it must surely be bad.
The current NFZ focuses on quite a few pathology. There we have a waste of money on a immense scale, arbitrary, detached from the reality of measuring medical benefits, terrible level of bureaucracy, unclear, constantly changing basket of reimbursed benefits. Patients are at the mercy of NFZ officials. No wonder 60% of patients are presently negative at NFZ. Almost 5 million Poles are already insured privately, 40% usage private wellness care due to the fact that they do not value NFZ.
To specified a hopeless strategy it's possible to add a immense amount of money, and it won't change anything, just like putting water in a gap bucket won't change anything either.
In the last ranking of wellness systems, Poland ranks 59th in the world. There are countries ahead of us specified as Azerbaijan, Jordan, Brazil, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Albania, Tunisia and Lebanon. Therefore, no 1 will tell me that this is simply a substance of money. This is simply a substance of organizing our system.
If our strategy is so bad, then the apparent question is: Should it not be changed?
A fewer weeks ago. I sent an interpelled to the Ministry of wellness asking if there have been any studies, comparative analyses that have checked whether or not our strategy could be changed in the last 20 years.Does any another country have a better strategy that can be transplanted to Poland? The answer was that No 1 even thinks about it.. We have a grandfatherly, hopeless wellness care system, where people wait years to see a specialist doctor, and no 1 in the present or erstwhile government even thinks that it should be changed, although the answer is completely obvious.
This grandfatherly current wellness strategy will not change any contribution, no fresh tax, no increase in these contributions. He will proceed to act badly. What needs to be done is break up the NFZ monopoly, introduce a strategy of competing wellness insurance funds. That's what Germans have. There are 100 competing wellness insurance funds. That's Swiss for a dozen. Both countries are in the top 10 ranking of the best wellness systems. It is simply a pity that Poles cannot have what Germany has. I believe that Poles besides deserve a good wellness system.
In conclusion, taxes should be low and simple and the state monopolist of the NFZ should be abolished.
