Health care expenditure in 2021–2023
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This document describes information on health care expenditure coming from two sources: results of the National Health Account (SHA2011), developed by Statistics Poland and public expenditures on health care, developed by the Ministry of Health. Due to methodological differences, these data vary. The main difference1 between those schemes is coverage of the domain of expenditure. National Health Account covers current expenditure on healthcare, both public and private, while public expenditures on healthcare, in accordance with the provisions of the Act2 refers only to public funds and is not limited to current expenditure and does not include local government expenditure. The information produced is also used differently: the results of the National Health Account serve mainly international comparisons and create the possibility of describing health care system from the perspective of total current expenditure incurred by various entities, while the information developed by the Ministry of Health serves monitoring and evaluating public funding of health care system.
According to preliminary estimates3, current expenditure on health care in 2023 amounted to PLN 241.6 billion (representing 7.1% of GDP) and was higher than in 2022 by about PLN 45.4 billion (in relation to preliminary data4 for 2022, which amounted to PLN 196.2 billion). An increase in spending was observed in public spending, while a decrease was observed in private spending.
1 Preliminary estimates of the National Health Account cover the total current expenditure on health care in the previous year and are presented in three main categories: HF.1: Public expenditure, HF.2: Private expenditure without direct household expenditure and HF.3: Direct household expenditure (out-of pocket payment). Preliminary estimates refer to 2023 data.
2 The results of the National Health Account for 2022 (until the publication of the official announcement of the President of Statistics Poland are treated as preliminary data) developed in accordance with the so-called The Joint Health Account Questionnaire (JHAQ) which covers health expenditure in four classification: financing schemes (HF), health care functions (HC), health care goods and service providers (HP) and financing schemes revenues (FS). Preliminary data was provided at the end of April this year to international organizations are subject to validation by an international panel of experts on national health accounts (IHAT) and are subject to change. The preliminary data for which the account was developed (not verified by the OECD) refer to the expenditure for 2022.
3 For more information on the methodology, please refer to the methodological comments at the end of the note.
4 Act of 27 August 2004 on health care services financed from public funds Art. 131c (Journal of Laws 2024, item 146).
