Priorities in the Polish health care system

Since 1999, Polish health policy has changed, the quality of services has increased, and also the level of financing, mainly from public benefits. Despite constant growth of indexes reflecting the health status of Polish society, such as life expectancy, quality of life, or decreasing index of deaths at birth, just as in the majority of European countries, in Poland the society is growing older, which implies the necessity to reorganize the system. In this paper, the author has described the most important factors that determine the operation of the health system in Poland, as well as presents the ways it was restructured over the last few years, taking into consideration the structural, legislative, financial, organizational, and quantitative aspects. Also, the latest trends in Polish health policy, which take into account new goals of the system, have been presented within.