Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia w systemie ochrony zdrowia
National Health Fund in the Health Care System

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the analysis of the legal and financial framework in which the National Health Fund functions in Poland. It has been confirmed that the Polish health care system is a structurally and relationally complicated entity and that the public authorities are responsible for the health security of citizens. Public tasks in this area are implemented through the use of strategic documents. The National Health Fund plays a key role in this field. However, it does not exercise a coordinating role, and still, it has an actual impact on the state of health security in Poland. Consideration should be given to the changes of contracting procedures proposed by scientists and practitioners, bearing in mind that simply increasing the amount of funding will not automatically improve the current situation without the drive towards more efficient spending of public funds. The main objective of this article is to analyse the existing contradiction in the Polish health care system, which comes down to the dilemma: how to reconcile patient’s welfare with the economic efficiency of public health care providers. The undertaken research problem has been reflected in the selection of research methods. For the purposes of this article, the following research methods have been used: critical analysis, the examination of documents, and observation. The undertaking of considerations was preceded by a preliminary survey of publications related to security and health sciences as well as management and social policy. A lot of articles, binding legal acts, internal legal acts, judicial decisions, official documents that are significant for the reasoning process presented in the article have been insightfully analyzed. In this area, a comparative analysis has proved to be particularly helpful.

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