Modern Polish healthcare was solidified in the post-communist era in 1997 with the Universal Health Insurance Act and its 1998 amendments (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2001). This act and the new constitution granted equal access to the public health system for every citizen (Girouard & Imai, 2000). By 1999, a new health insurance system was brought in, funded via payroll contributions from employees and employers (Girouard & Imai, 2000). The deviation from systems such as Canada’s or the United Kingdom’s was the addition of a private tier of healthcare. It was made clear that “patients are entitled to a choice of any service providers, private or public” (Girouard & Imai, 2000, p. 10). Contrast that with Canada where the Government of Canada’s website proclaims, “It’s up to the provinces and territories to determine which services are medically necessary” and, “The Canada Health Act doesn’t forbid private providers from delivering health services, as long as they don’t charge for medically necessary services” (Canada, 2025). Provincial governments decide what services are medically necessary, therefore removing choice from consumers in Canada.
Poland’s public health system is known as the NFZ (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia – National Health Fund). The purpose of this organization is similar to Canada’s healthcare system – to provide equal access to care for all people. This is not newsworthy as most nations have the same type of system. Poland’s private system is of interest for these writings as Poland has managed to have a functional, high-quality private tier of medical care that provides citizens freedom of choice but also remains relatively affordable to those who wish to make use of this system. Poland had realized by the 1990s that its healthcare system was under strain and therefore encouraged competition and private offerings in order to bear some of the strain (Kaczmarek et al., 2013). The modern system allows for all citizens who have paid into the NFZ fund to make use of public facilities and also have the option of either paying the provider directly in the private system or using private insurance.
The advantage of the private system in Poland is that one does not need a general practitioner/family doctor referral to see specialist (Healthcare in Warsaw for Foreigners, 2026). From my own experience, seeing a specialist is as easy as booking online and paying the fee directly to the provider if you do not have private insurance. I decided to try one of the newest clinics in the brand new Varso Place Tower in Warsaw on my visit in May 2026. PZU Zdrowie is one of the largest medical operators in Poland, with clinics in nearly every city. There are 130 company-owned medical centers and diagnostic labs, alongside over 2,300 partner medical facilities across more than 600 cities and towns in Poland (PZU Zdrowie – Prywatna Opieka Medyczna, n.d.). I was able to book my specialist visit from my home in Canada. I paid the fee ahead of time (which was approximately $130 CAD) and I simply showed up at my allotted time, presented my identification (which in my case was my Polish passport) and had my visit to address my concerns. As it turns out, it was exactly that simple.
There was no rushing through my exam, or a limit of “one issue per visit,” because this was my time that I paid for. I got a thorough exam and some ultrasound pictures to take home. I was informed by my Polish physician friend that the doctor I visited with was renowned in his field. This is not the first time I have used this system and not the first time I have had a pleasant experience. What Canadians are missing with all the fearmongering about private healthcare is that in the end, quality rises and wait times drop. The clinic I visited was more modern than any doctor’s office I have been to in Canada, and as there is competition, the prices are fair. If I have a concern about my body due to hereditary conditions, who is the state to tell me I have to wait several months for a referral to a specialist if I am willing to pay the cost to see one myself? While the public system in Poland has some waiting and the expected slowness, the private system is burgeoning. Medical professionals can also be entrepreneurs, which allows consumers to benefit because the market and the consumers dictate the prices.
If we take a political economy view of healthcare as a commodity, classical political economists like David Ricardo would have argued against state-imposed restrictions or interference as it would distort the marketplace. A classic example is the British “Corn Laws” from the 1800s, where the British government disallowed grain imports and forced the “in-house” agricultural sector to use poor land (Hunt & Lautzenheiser, 2011). This drove up costs and slowed economic growth (Hunt & Lautzenheiser, 2011). Canada currently has a state-monopolized healthcare system that is completely opposed to privatizing “medically necessary” services or treatments. Canada’s medical patients get whatever land the government tells them to use, even if it is not the best, most modern, or the land one wants. This creates an artificial and unnecessary scarcity of specialist medical services at great expense to the taxpayer and the state, and in some cases, at the expense of one’s life. Letting the market decide doesn’t mean abandoning people; it means creating an efficient parallel option. If Poland can figure out how to make this affordable and usable in a mere thirty-five years, why do Canadians insist that this model of healthcare will be out of reach and only for the rich?
In the next segment, we will delve into how that makes life and sometimes life-saving treatment difficult for its population. Then we will go into a more in-depth examination of Poland’s private system.
See below for PZU Zdrowie network of clinics:
References
Canada, H. (2025, July 16). How publicly funded health care coverage works [Education and awareness]. Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-care-system/canada-health-care-system-medicare/canada-health-act/how-publicly-funded-coverage-works.html
Girouard, N., & Imai, Y. (2000). The health care system in Poland (OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 238). OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/265022143317
Healthcare in Warsaw for foreigners: 2026 guide. (2026, July 29). Warsaw Investor Care. https://warsawinvestor.care/healthcare-in-warsaw
Hunt, E. K., & Lautzenheiser, M. (2011). David Ricardo. In History of economic thought (3rd ed., pp. 91–112). Routledge.
Kaczmarek, K., Flynn, H., Letka-Paralusz, E., Krajewski-Siuda, K., & Gericke, C. A. (2013). The process of privatization of health care provision in Poland. Value in Health Regional Issues, 2(2), 306–311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vhri.2013.06.001
PZU Zdrowie—Prywatna opieka medyczna. (n.d.). Retrieved June 5, 2026, from https://zdrowie.pzu.pl/
WHO Regional Office for Europe. (2001). Highlights on health in Poland. WHO Regional Office for Europe. https://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_projects/1999/monitoring/poland_en.pdf
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