Yes! Health insurance system in Poland is based on principles of equal treatment and access to healthcare services. **National Health Fund** (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia; NFZ) is the institution responsible for public medical services in Poland and it is they who manage public funds for healthcare.

If you are employed as a full-time employee and your employer has declared you to social security, you can register with a general practitioner and use all services available with public health insurance.

You can also enrol into health insurance yourself even if you do not have the employment yet, or you have the gap in employment. You can check the instructions on how to do it here. If you are not employed and want to cover your health insurance yourself, you need pay for it yourself. If your employer is enrolling you, your insurance will be paid out of health security contributions.

⚠️ Remember to always tell your employer about all your family members! They will be also covered by the health insurance in that case (your spouse and children under 18 years old or under 26 years old if they are students).

The insurance covers most health services needed like:

Please keep in mind that waiting times for specialist doctors can be very long and range from 1 week to even 6 months in some cases and depending on location.

If you don’t have the public insurance, you can still call the ambulance and use hospital and other health services however, you will have to pay for each of this service.

In order to have access to a general practitioner that will be mostly the first-contact health care provider for you, you need to submit a declaration to a specific public health clinic. In Poland, the general practitioner is called a “family doctor” (pl. lekarz rodzinny). In order to choose your doctor you need to submit the declaration online through your Internet Patient Account (Internetowe Konto Pacjenta/IKP). The respective clinic has to accept your declaration before you can call there and schedule a visit. Sometimes, if the clinic reaches the limit of its patients it can reject your declaration. In that case, you can just submit the declaration to another doctor.

The IKP profile is your internet profile where you will see the list of all your internet prescriptions, hospital stays and vaccination certification.