Financing of the most expensive drug therapies in Poland : analysis of the funding level of the therapeutic health programs

One of the most discussed topics about organization of the Polish health care system is providing full accessibility to the financing of the latest drug therapies. According to the institutions implementing the programs most serious causes of problems in access to innovative pharmacotherapy are too low level of funding programs and their low profitability, or even hospitals pay the extra to such benefits. Due to the increasingly high cost of treatment of severe illnesses and ongoing development of new medical technologies, in choosing the method of treatment are taken into account the results of economic analyzes. The authors, by analyzing the level of funding and implementation of treatment programs, have attempted to answer the question whether the claims are true, and health care providers and Polish patients have equal access to the most expensive drug therapies? To verify the above hypothesis also performed an cost analysis of selected therapeutic programs. Cost analysis conducted based on the identification and analysis of the costs of four therapeutic health programs indicated that the refund value of National Health Fund for providers implementing health programs may be substantially higher than the costs incurred by them. The current way of financing most expensive innovation therapy has many weaknesses, but most frequently mentioned causes of the problems with the availability of treatment programs are not supported by actual data