HealthCare in Poland

HealthCare in Poland

 The public and private health care system of Poland is mixed, and the primary public source of financing in health care is the social health insurance.  Also, the health insurance contribution is mandatory for all income base, which corresponds to taxable people at a rate of 8.5% as of 2005. The National Health Fund (NHF) administers the social health insurance scheme, and its primary responsibility is to plan and purchase public finance health services.  The state funds a specific group of individuals that are not covered by the particular public health scheme (Sagan et al., 2011). Moreover, the Ministry of Health is responsible for significant capital investments and national health policy for medical science education.

Nonetheless, the main differences between the United States and Poland health care system are that the U.S spends more money on healthcare per person as compared to Poland, who is continually introducing alternative sources of revenue for the healthcare system. Also, the U.S is an Outlier when it comes to healthcare spending. As a result, the U.S devotes more money from the national income, which has made the healthcare spending to rise to 16.4 % per GDP, unlike Poland.

In Poland, the guidelines and standards for the provision of quality healthcare are stipulated in legal documents such as acts and regulations, which makes them more ethical.  According to Konstanczak and Choinska, (2011), Polish physicians must have the right to practice vested in them by the regional medical council.  Nurses and midwives must practice with due diligence under the professional ethics and rights of patients. Besides, paramedics must have the full legal capacity that allows him to exercise his profession, a diagnosis should take into account the medical standards, and the professional association must use their power to discipline rogue members..

Moreover, the necessary legal law in Poland provides the right to have a safe and healthy working environment as enshrined in the Constitution. Meaning, the Labour Code implements this right. However, as of 2005, the law on public health was incomplete; and the medical court cases in terms of patients’ rights seem to be the most controversial issue in Poland. Hence, this implies that the polish law in the health care system contradicts the professional obligation of a medical provider.  Such code needs urgent amendments in the area of judicial court cases, financing, and strengthening the core competencies of caregivers.

Additionally, Polish law does not regulate the situation of a patient who is in a vegetative state. In such happens, the general norms that establish the relationship between a doctor and a patient should be maintained. Following the patients’ rights, a patient has the right to die peacefully and with dignity.  Hence, a physician is not allowed to conduct a resuscitation therapy along with extraordinary means. This regulation also applies to patients whose conscious functioning seems impossible.

Under an act on patient rights, a patient has the power of dying in peace and dignity. Guidance from this regulation should be made per the content of article 32 of the physician code of ethics, which anticipates that in terminal states, a physician is not obliged to initiate and conduct resuscitation or overzealous therapy along with with with employment extraordinary means. This regulation should also be applied to cases of patients in a vegetative state in a situation when recovery to conscious functioning is seemed to be impossible. Moreover, the question of whether free healthcare should be treated as a human right is complicated. This is because of the ethical considerations, financial tensions, and legal implications. Although healthcare is a fundamental need and individual rights, it is just like the other basic needs –food and shelter, which does not obligate the state or others to make the provisions free. Hence, the difficulty of having free healthcare as a fundamental right lies in the notion that care, just like any other commodity, cannot be allocated equally to all the members of the society.

References

Konstanczak, S., &Choinska, B. (2011). Professional ethics in Polish Medicine.

Sagan, A., Panteli, D., Borkowski, W., Dmowski, M., Domański, F., Czyżewski, M., … &

Księżak, M. (2011). Poland: Health system review.