EQUALITY AND SOLIDARITY IN UNIVERSAL HEALTH INSURANCE AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF CHANGES IN FINANCING OF THE HEALTH CARE FROM JANUARY 1, 2022

Abstract

Equality and solidarity are values which, in universal health insurance, take on the form of legal principles anchored both in the constitutional directive of equal access, irrespective of the materialsituation of the citizen, to health care benefits financed from public funds (Article 68, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland) and the statutory provision that health insurance isbased on the principle of equal treatment and social solidarity (Article 65, point 1 of the Act on health care benefits financed from public funds). The relationship between these two principles within the framework of universal health insurance is that many of the existing exceptions to equal treatment are justified by solidarity in bearing the costs of this insurance (the rule from the insured/regions richer to the insured/regions poorer) or in providing health care benefits (the rule from less severely ill to more severely ill). However, not all regulations in this area result from objective differences between the insured. Doubts are raised particularly by the differentiation of the health contribution interest rate among entrepreneurs, the financing of health insurance by farmers, or the accumulation of contribution burdens on persons who earning income from employment or non-agricultural activity.