OECD Economics Department Working Papers

ISSN :
1815-1973 (online)
DOI :
10.1787/18151973
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Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.
 

Improving the Health-Care System in Poland You or your institution have access to this content

Authors:
Hervé Boulhol1, Agnieszka Sowa2, Stanislawa Golinowska2, Patrizio Sicari1
Author Affiliations
  • 1: OECD, France

  • 2: Center for Social and Economic Research, Poland

Publication Date
10 May 2012
Bibliographic information
No.:
957
Pages
42
DOI
10.1787/5k9b7bn5qzvd-en

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Since the transformation following the Communist era, Poland has matched improvements in health outcomes of the most developed OECD countries, although without catching up the ground lost during the 1970s and 1980s. The health status of the population remains relatively poor, although after controlling for per capita income health outcomes are only slightly below the OECD average. The Polish health-care system is characterised by low spending, a heavily regulated public system with a stringent budget constraint, restricted sub-national government autonomy and a thin private insurance market. Heavy out-of-pocket payments and long waiting lists generate inequalities in access to care. The most pressing issues to be addressed concern: easing the substantial limitations in access to care; reducing persistent inequalities; carefully designing new private health insurance; better coordinating among major public actors; improving hospital management; strengthening the gate-keeping function played by generalists; and developing a comprehensive long-term-care strategy. This Working Paper relates to the 2012 OECD Economic Review of Poland (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Poland).
Keywords:
physicians, health care system, waiting lists, pharmaceuticals, Poland, hospitals, health-care insurance
JEL Classification:
  • I1: Health, Education, and Welfare / Health