Like most countries in Europe, Poland has a public healthcare system that covers the entire country and almost all medical procedures. In addition to the widespread availability of public healthcare services, private healthcare can also be found everywhere in the country, and is extremely affordable compared with other Western countries.
When it comes to insurance, medical insurance services can be divided into three different categories:
All public healthcare facilities in Poland are provided by the government’s health agency, Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia, or NFZ. The NFZ is funded by a flat 9% healthcare tax, which is deducted from all employment wages in Poland.
To be covered by Poland’s public healthcare system, and thus receive free treatment at any public medical facility in Poland, you must fall into one of the following categories (these apply to both foreigners and Poles):
Employed persons and their family members have their healthcare premiums taken out of their paycheck as part of taxes, amounting to approximately 9% of gross income. Sole traders must calculate and pay these premiums themselves every month, and accountants will usually advise.
If you do not fall into one of the above categories, it is still possible to obtain coverage from NFZ through what is called voluntary insurance. For all other foreigners in Poland not covered by NFZ, including non-EU students, part-time workers, and freelancers working on a freelance contract (umowa o dzielo), it is your decision whether or not you’d like to register for NFZ coverage.
Registering for voluntary insurance through NFZ is a two-step process. First, make a trip to your city’s NFZ branch office and submit a registration form, along with your passport (and visa/residence permit if non-EU) and fill out an application.
Then, you’ll have to take the same documents plus your NFZ contract to the nearest branch office of Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych; Poland’s social security agency, or ZUS, and fill out another application. In Poland, public healthcare and social security are interconnected, so you cannot be registered in one without the other.
Both applications are very short and straightforward, though they are in Polish so make sure to have Google Translate or a Polish speaker handy.
The cost of NFZ voluntary insurance varies from year to year, but is usually between 450 and 700 PLN per month. Like everything with NFZ, voluntary insurance is a single-payer, all-inclusive system. Everyone pays the same rate, and has access to all of the same services, treatment, and facilities.
Unfortunately, Poland’s public healthcare system is incredibly complex and tangled in bureaucracy. However, it is very comprehensive, so with some basic understanding of how the system works, it can be utilized for pretty much anything.
Almost everything with NFZ will start with a primary healthcare provider (called POZ in Polish). No matter what treatment you need, your POZ should be the first step – he or she will then refer you for more advanced treatment if needed.
The NFZ maintains a dynamic map of all NFZ-registered POZ in Poland. But you probably don’t need this to find a doctor; virtually all hospitals and medical centers will have POZ available. Even private medical centers will typically have POZ available, under contract with NFZ.
If you’re covered by NFZ, you can call or walk into any medical center and request to see a POZ. Appointments are usually available on the spot, however you may need to wait a day or two if you want to request a particular doctor. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all POZ will offer appointments over the phone in addition to in-person visits.
As with most things in Poland, a visit to a doctor is generally a direct and straight-to-the-point affair. There’s no small-talk or getting to know your doctor; the doctor will ask what you need help with, do his job, and send you on your way.
The concept of going to the doctor for a “checkup” doesn’t really exist in Poland; Poles go to the doctor if they need treatment for something. That being said, any POZ will be happy to give you a simple checkup if you ask for one, albeit with some slight curiosity as to why you’re going to the doctor if you’re not sick.
The reason that every medical journey with NFZ will start with your primary care doctor is that virtually all specialist and long-term healthcare options require a doctor’s referral (called skierowanie in Polish). This includes even basic procedures, like getting a cavity filled, an eye checkup, or an ear cleaning, as well as more costly procedures like surgeries, physical therapy, or MRI scans.
Once you have a referral, scheduling an appointment with a specialist is a similar procedure to scheduling a POZ appointment. Call or walk into a medical center, show your referral, and ask to schedule an appointment with a specialist of the field you’ve been referred to. Many medical centers now offer online forms for booking appointments if you have a referral, though this is still relatively rare. Some are also linked to the official NFZ Patient Portal, which does offer an online booking system, though it is still limited as of writing.
Unfortunately, like in many other European countries, the wait time to get an appointment with many specialists can be very, very long. And if your condition isn’t deemed to be critical, there isn’t much you can do other than trying other medical centers to see if they have more availability (they usually don’t).
*Update 2024. It is now possible to book consultations with some specialists without a referral. Though only basic consultations; for any more advanced treatment, you’ll have to get a referral from either the specialist or a POZ.
Pharmacies (apteka) can be found everywhere in Poland, offering a wide stock of over-the-counter drugs and prescription medication. The cost of medicine is subsidized by the Polish government, so the cost of medication is far lower than it is in most of the Western world.
All doctors in Poland, public or private, general or specialist, can issue prescriptions for medication (recepta in Polish), which can be redeemed at any pharmacy in the country. Prescriptions are 100% electronic; the doctor will enter the prescription information and your ID number into his system, and you’ll be able to pick it up at any apteka by simply showing your ID. Sometimes they will ask for your PESEL as well.
If you’re covered by NFZ, you’ll find that some (but by no means all) prescription medication is available at a reduced price or even free of charge. Like most things with NFZ, there unfortunately isn’t much logic as to which medications are covered by insurance and which aren’t. Even the doctor writing the prescription usually won’t be able to tell you if you’ll have to pay for the medication or not, and if he does, he’s probably just taking an educated guess.
Poland has an excellent system of emergency medical care, operated by NFZ. Anyone in need of emergency medical treatment in Poland can be attended to and treated free of charge (no questions asked), however if you are not covered by NFZ, you will most likely receive a bill after being treated.
Every hospital in Poland will have an emergency room (called SOR in Polish), which operates in a similar fashion to emergency rooms all over the world. You’ll first be called into triage, and then depending on the urgency of your condition and how busy the hospital is, you may get treated right away or you may have to wait a few hours.
Poland’s ambulance service is free of charge for those in need, and extremely well-equipped and efficient compared to other Western countries. Ambulance teams are staffed by physicians and nurses (not technicians), who are trained and equipped to provide an extensive range of treatment on the scene of the accident.
The European Health Insurance Card
If you’re a resident of an EU country and insured under your country’s public healthcare scheme, you can obtain an European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) from your local health authorities.
This will entitle you to free coverage from NFZ facilities during the first few weeks of your stay, however once you begin working in Poland, the EHIC is no longer valid. You are then considered a resident of Poland and must have Polish insurance.
For many expats in Poland, this isn’t a decision. If you run a business, or are employed full-time on an employment contract, you must have public insurance. But for expats living in Poland who are not mandated to be covered by NFZ, such as those working on freelance contracts and students, it’s a tough call.
Being covered by NFZ has one key advantage over even the most expensive private insurance plans: you’ll always be covered.
While wait times may be long for certain specialists, you will never be refused treatment, and won’t ever be charged any extra fees, when using Poland’s public healthcare system. No matter how time-consuming, costly, or complex your condition is, the NFZ will never refuse you.
For this reason, NFZ insurance is popular among long-term expats as it provides, essentially, a lifelong guarantee that you’ll be covered for all medical treatment in Poland. It is also popular among expats who have chronic health conditions or are otherwise at a high risk of needing serious medical treatment.
But if you’re generally healthy and not looking to make Poland your permanent home, private healthcare options may be the better choice.
There are numerous private insurance companies offering medical coverage plans to foreigners in Poland, usually at a quite affordable price. Think of this as travel insurance for your time in Poland. By law, if you aren’t covered by NFZ, you’ll need to have at least 30,000 EUR of emergency coverage to get a Residence Permit or visa. Expect to pay between 600 and 800 PLN for a plan at this level.
Two private insurance companies we can recommend are Signal Iduna, Wiener, and PZU. English Wizards offers plans from the former two that meet the requirements for visas and residence permits, available online here from €195.
This is crazy cheap! So what’s the catch?
Well, if you’re looking for something to only cover you in an absolute critical emergency, this will work. But remember that not everything is an emergency, and every plan has different standards of what defines a “sudden emergency.”
If you get the flu and need to go to the doctor, if you need prescription medications, or if you want to go to the dentist to get a cavity looked at, that’ll all be coming out of your pocket. Even if you go to the emergency room, there is still a fine line between what they’ll pay for and what they won’t. The onus will always be on you to prove to them that your medical expenses fall under the coverage that you’ve paid for.
Private healthcare providers make up almost a third of the healthcare industry in Poland, and the majority of it is dominated by a few companies that operate private hospitals and clinics all across the country.
Likely owing to the long wait times and complexity of the public NFZ system, private healthcare is the go-to option for the majority of expats in Poland, and about a third of Poles as well.
All the major private medical providers offer a number of different insurance plans and ‘pay as you go’ medical services. The “big 3” players in the industry are Luxmed, Medicover, and Enel-Med.
Unlike NFZ’s “one stop shop” option for voluntary insurance, private healthcare providers offer a wide range of insurance plans, with the cheaper plans covering a more limited number of visits and types of treatment. Luxmed is by far the largest of the four, with Medicover coming a quite distant second. However bigger doesn’t always mean better, so spend some time looking into their plans to decide what suits you best. They’ll almost always speak English and have information catered to foreigners – they are for-profit companies after all, and foreigners have money to spend.
Prices can vary dramatically depending on how much is included in your plan, so you could be spending anywhere between 1400 and 8000 PLN per year on a private medical insurance plan.
English Wizards offers a number of discounted plans available through our partnership with Luxmed, Poland’s largest private medical provider. You can register for them online through us. Note that a Polish residential address is required, so you must be in Poland to register.
In addition to insurance plans, private medical centers will also allow an uninsured person, or an insured person who doesn’t have certain services included in their plan, to utilize services and pay ‘out of pocket.’
A visit to a general practitioner will probably cost a bit over 100 PLN, while a specialist will cost somewhere in the range of 150 to 250 PLN. Simple dental procedures, such as cleanings and fillings, will cost around 200 to 400 PLN. Of course, the price will go up if you need more complex procedures taken care of, with routine surgeries usually costing between 2000 and 5000 PLN.
Compared to the endless bureaucratic sea of NFZ, scheduling an appointment with either a general practitioner or specialist at a private healthcare provider is incredibly simple and straightforward. All companies have ‘hotlines’ posted on their website to schedule appointments over the phone, and most also have online appointment booking systems and even smartphone apps.
Unlike at NFZ, private medical providers allow customers to see the vast majority of specialists without a referral. Only the most expensive and costly procedures require getting a referral. The wait time to see a specialist with a private medical provider is nearly always less than one week or two.
Many Poles and foreigners alike who are covered by mandatory public insurance ask themselves if it’s worthwhile to utilize private healthcare in addition to NFZ healthcare. And for a huge number of people, the answer is yes; according to a 2016 study, 77% of Poles stated that they used private healthcare at least once in the last year.
With private healthcare plans being incredibly affordable – LUXMED plans offered through English Wizards start at 120 PLN per month – many expats find this to be an incredibly valuable asset to alleviate the stress of dealing with the NFZ’s web of POZ, skierowanie, and 3+ month wait times.
Not only do private medical providers have exponentially shorter wait times and less bureaucracy, but they’re also much easier to deal with as a foreigner. The NFZ’s system is infamously difficult to navigate, even for Polish people, and almost no information is available in English online. Though most doctors, being highly educated professionals, can speak at least some English, the systems you’ll need to get past in order to see that doctor at an NFZ clinic (receptionists, nurses, call center staff, robo-call messages, booking forms, etc), will not likely be in English.
Private medical providers (particularly LUXMED), have their entire system readily available in English, and even offer a convenient filter to search for only English-speaking doctors when booking an appointment.
A major drawback of private medical care in Poland is that private medical companies (usually) do not provide emergency medical care. Even if they claim to offer treatment for some medical emergencies, if you’ve broken your back falling from the third-floor window, the last thing you probably want to ask is “does my plan include coverage for this emergency?”
If you’ll be applying for a Temporary Residence Permit or visa, your medical insurance must cover emergency hospitalization. As private medical plans do not cover this, such plans will unfortunately not be accepted. For this reason, many foreigners will get a private medical insurance plan in addition to an emergency insurance plan or NFZ coverage.
Let’s say you’ve opted for only emergency insurance. Or, perhaps your covered by NFZ but you can’t wait six months to see an orthopedic specialist to prescribe medication for your back pains. Are there still options?
Yes indeed. The good news is that private medical clinics (including the ones discussed above) are quite affordable, even if you’re uninsured and paying out-of-pocket.
Considering the inexpensive prices of medical treatment (at least compared with countries like the US), many expats will opt for only emergency insurance and simply pay out of pocket for incidental medical expenses. Ultimately the choice is yours. By law, it is hospitalization coverage that you are required to have, but after that, we can’t make your decision for you.
As a foreigner living a long way from home, things can get stressful, and mental healthcare is incredibly important.
Fortunately, mental healthcare with psychologists and psychiatrists is offered by NFZ to all insured persons and is also included (to a limited extent) in the Luxmed plans offered through English Wizards. Though like other forms of ‘specialist’ healthcare, accessing a good psychologist or psychiatrist through NFZ can be fairly complicated and can take a while.
For more comprehensive and readily available mental healthcare tailored specifically for the needs of expats, English Wizards offers special psychotherapy plans with our own board-certified therapist.
