Queues to doctors and generally poor quality of the National Health Fund (NFZ) offer are the reasons for a growing number of people and companies taking out private health insurance policies – reports “Rzeczpospolita”. After the first quarter of this year, there were already more than 1.2 million private health insurance policies.

11.5 weeks waiting time

11.5 weeks waiting time

In the first quarter of this year sales of health insurance have grown by 32% in comparison with the same period of 2014. According to data from the Polish Chamber of Insurance, as of March 2015, more than 1.2 million Poles had private health insurance, including individual policies – almost 200 000, and more than 1 million group policies.

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One of the reasons is the increasing concern about long waiting time to a specialist. The Watch Health Care research shows that the average waiting time for so-called guaranteed medical services has got one week longer in 2015, and is already an average of 11.5 weeks.

Poles appreciate the convenience of quick access to doctors and medical benefits offered by insurers, and the race for customers has clearly defined eight leading insurance companies, which strongly associate their future revenue source with this business – says Dorota M. Fal, adviser to the board of the Polish Chamber of Insurance for health insurance.

Experts and industry representatives are convinced that in the coming years health insurance market will grow rapidly. The reason they give is the growing affluence of the Polish society. The average monthly wages, private consumption and expenses incurred by patients out of their own pockets keep growing.

Another reason for the increasing number of Poles buying private health insurance policies may be a growing number of people working on contracts without insurance.

 
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