Ethical Aspects of Prophylactic Activities of Health Insurance Institutions

The paper consists of two parties. The former deals with the theoretical framework of the problem. On the one hand, attention is paid to selected elements of medical ethics, especially its connections with health economics. On the other hand, the authors discuss the notion and significance of prophylactic activities carried out by health insurance institutions. The latter part of the paper is based on an empirical material, which was made available by the Supervisory Office for Health Insurance in mid-March 2003 and concerns the costs of medical services incurred by all the regional health insurance institutions in Poland from 1999 to 2003. The costs of prophylactic health programmes and health policy programmes are analysed with the use of additional data obtained from the Financial Department of the Łódź Regional Sickness Fund. It has been calculated that the costs of prophylactic health programmes and health policy programmes per capita will range from 0.48 zł to 8.56 zł in 2003, depending on the health insurance institution. The share of these costs on total costs of medical services will range from 0.066 to 1.239%. The presented situation gives rise to a justified anxiety and makes one ask numerous questions connected with ethical dilemnas.Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 dofinansowane zostało ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę