Offered by non-state healthcare facilities and chains, medical subscription services have been becoming increasingly popular in Poland. As many as ca. 2.5 million people have been using subscription-based healthcare, health specialists estimate.
Generally, subscription services are purchased by employers for their personnel. However, individuals too are turning towards such packages to obtain better access to specialist treatment. Subscriptions are available both for individual patients and as part of family packages.
This growing interest in supplementary healthcare is fostered by demographic trends and population ageing.
Subscription vs. private insurance
Subscriptions usually involve lump-sum payments, and in some cases patients can pay extra e.g. a modest fee for a doctor's appointment. Generally, packages also provide preventive healthcare such as occupational-health medical examinations.
However, medical subscriptions are not to be mistaken for private health insurance offered by insurance companies in addition to life insurance. As part of this service patients pay contributions and the insurer in turn covers the costs of treatment in specific situations defined under the contract.
How to choose your subscription
In Poland, the subscription market has been dominated by three largest chains which, in addition to their own facilities, provide subscription-based healthcare in a considerable number of other centres and partner practices.
When opting to purchase a subscription you might want to compare different packages, their scope and price. The available range of products allows you to choose a package tailored to your financial capacity and healthcare needs.
What do chains have on offer?
Prices range from several dozen zloty a month for a basic package, to several hundred zloty a month for the so-called Lux or Prestige packages which additionally provide dentist, rehabilitation and same-day surgery services.
For example basic medical healthcare scheme for adults provides i.a. for unlimited consultations with primary healthcare professionals and doctors on duty (for an additional 15 zloty per visit), unlimited consultations with 18 types of specialists without prior referral (for an additional 15 zloty per visit), extended nursing and outpatient procedures, basic and extended laboratory testing, extended imaging services (USG, X-ray, mammography, and ECG for an additional 15 zloty per test), and flu vaccination with qualification (for an additional 15 zloty).
What is the value of this market?
Poles spend about 30-40 billion zloty on healthcare, out of which over 2.2 billion on medical subscriptions sold by private clinics, experts say. The other out-of-pocket patient expenses include rehabilitation services, diagnostic tests and paid doctor's appointments, as well as healthcare insurances offered by insurance companies, and charges collected within the shadow economy.
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