The national health insurance system is based on a number of general rules which are applicable unless specific legislation or international agreements provide otherwise. In accordance with the general rules, persons working in Poland on the basis of an employment contract, regardless of their nationality, are subject to compulsory health insurance. All resulting insurance payments are made for them by their employer. The rate of the health insurance contribution paid by the employer is a certain percentage of the income earned by the employee.

In principle, members of the employee’s family are entitled to free medical services provided that they are registered to be covered by the employee’s health insurance. Health insurance is also compulsory for undergraduate and postgraduate students, including doctoral students; contributions are paid for them by the institution where they are enrolled in (a higher education institution or an organisational unit of a research institution providing doctoral programmes). Non-nationals who reside in Poland, but do not fall within any of these categories and thus are not statutorily covered by the national health insurance, may be insured on a voluntary basis. To be covered by such insurance, they are required to submit an application to the National Health Fund and subsequently pay their contributions in accordance with the relevant legislation.

Polish state health care system

The Polish state health care system is based on a general health insurance. There are two categories of individuals entitled to free health care services on the territory of Poland (beneficiaries):

Beneficiaries are entitled to free health care services if they receive these services at health care providers who have concluded contracts on providing health services with the National Health Fund (NFZ). Health care providers are mainly: doctors who practise within the health care system (doctors, dentists), public and non-public health units (hospitals, first aid stations, dispensaries, health centres), out-patient clinics (individual, individual specialist, group).