Your gross pay
576 PLN contribution per month
at the median wage. Employment contract: 9% of gross pay after deducting social contributions. Calculated in your browser, nothing is saved.
Path · from contribution to pay
How much we pay, and for what.
From your contribution to a doctor’s pay, in four stops. Totals are visible at each of them, but the total for one person is public at none.
Stop 1 of 4 · Health contribution
Where does this money come from?
Transparency3 of 3: visible
Employees and business owners pay a percentage of their income, farmers an amount per hectare, and for some people the state budget pays.
An employee pays 9% of the contribution base towards health. Until the end of 2021 most of this amount could be deducted from tax; since 1 January 2022 there has been no deduction.
A farmer in KRUS, the farmers’ social insurance fund, pays PLN 1 per conversion hectare, and for farms smaller than 6 ha the contribution is paid by the state budget. These are two different measures, so the comparison alone does not say who pays more.
Some health spending does not pass through the National Health Fund (NFZ) at all. In 2024, households spent PLN 47.6 billion (≈ €10.8 billion) on healthcare out of their own pockets, 23% more than a year earlier. For prescription medicines in pharmacies, patients paid PLN 18.1 billion in 2025 and the NFZ PLN 15.3 billion.
Sources: Commissioner for Human Rights (RPO), health contribution, KRUS, Statistics Poland (GUS), National Health Account for 2024, Statistics Poland (GUS), prescription medicine sales, 2025.
6,909 PLN per year
That is your health contribution at the median wage (). Contributions make up most of the NFZ’s revenue, but not all of it. Estimate
Wage source: Statistics Poland (GUS), median wage, October 2025. The contribution is our calculation for an employment contract. Change the wage
Per PLN 100 in the draft NFZ plan for 2026
ContributionPLN 85
PLN 184.35 billion. Paid by employees, entrepreneurs and farmers, and for some people by the budget. It is not enough on its own: in 2021–H1 2024 it covered from 90.3% to 96.26% of the cost of services.
Budget subsidyPLN 12
PLN 26.00 billion. A top-up from the state budget that grows during the year: according to the Ministry of Health, the subsidy for 2026 rose from PLN 26 billion to PLN 33.6 billion.
Other revenuePLN 3
PLN 7.04 billion. A transfer from the Medical Fund, the sugar and alcohol levies, financial revenue and smaller items.
Sources: Sejm Health Committee, 9 July 2025, Ministry of Health, 18 September 2026, Supreme Audit Office (NIK), audit of the NFZ 2021–2024.
- What can be checked
- Rates set out in the act and aggregate amounts in the NFZ plan.
- What cannot be seen
- Where your zloty will go — that is decided only at the next stops.
Texts at this stop
- Start here
Following the public zloty
Four stops of the public zloty: the health contribution, the NFZ plan, pricing and settlement with the hospital, payment to the doctor. Totals are visible at each of them, but the total amount for one person is public at none.90–96%of the cost of services was covered by the contribution (2021–H1 2024) - Analysis
Private visits: the longer the waiting list, the higher the price
A private visit to a specialist costs on average PLN 231.52, 2.6 times more than in 2015. There is more and more public money and the waiting list is not getting shorter — so those who can afford it pay to skip it.PLN 231.52average private specialist visit in 2025 - Analysis
One doctor, two price lists: public and private healthcare
The same doctor works in a hospital with a National Health Fund contract and in a private practice. How public and private healthcare share costs and profits — in the US and in Poland — and why more public money does not shorten the queue but strengthens the second price list.×3.1the NFZ budget since 2015 — and a queue 43% longer - Analysis
Pharmacies and prescriptions: public and private money
In 2025 the NFZ spent PLN 30 billion on reimbursement. Just under PLN 16 billion of this went through pharmacies; the rest went mainly to drug programmes and chemotherapy. Online prescription services run mostly on patients’ money, while public money was fraudulently obtained through prescriptions for compounded medicines.30.0PLN billion of NFZ reimbursement in 2025
Stop 2 of 4 · NFZ plan
What happens to it in the NFZ?
Transparency3 of 3: totals visible
The contribution, the subsidy from the state budget and smaller revenues go into a single financial plan of the Fund.
The plan must be balanced: costs may not exceed revenue. From 2015 to 2025, costs in the plan rose from PLN 71.5 billion to PLN 220.2 billion (≈ €50.1 billion): more than threefold in nominal terms and roughly twofold after inflation.
The plan does not show how much pay costs. The cost of the act on minimum pay is known from estimates: PLN 71–72 billion in 2026, about a third of costs.
Nor does the plan say whether facilities have enough money. At the end of 2025, 562 public hospitals owed PLN 34 billion (≈ €7.74 billion), and the debt goes mainly on current expenses. Our estimate for today, which also covers SPZOZ facilities that are not hospitals, is over PLN 40 billion.
Sources: NFZ, financial plans, Statistics Poland (GUS), price indices, TVN24, Forsal.pl, Ministry of Health via Rynek Zdrowia, hospital debt counter.
114% of average NFZ costs per resident
In the NFZ plan for 2026 there is on average about PLN 6,060 of costs per resident, and your contribution is PLN 6,909. But it is not a payment for your own treatment: you pay the contribution according to income and use healthcare according to need. Estimate
Sources: NFZ plan, as of 5 October 2026, Statistics Poland (GUS), population 2024. The average per resident is our calculation. Change the wage
Year by year: costs in the NFZ plan and the queue
Above the bar: costs in the plan, PLN billion. Below the year: average wait for a service, months.
2025
PLN 220.16 billion
3.1 times the 2015 level
4.2 months
average wait for a service
Nominal amounts; after inflation, costs have roughly doubled since 2015. Sources: NFZ plan, WHC Barometer.
- What can be checked
- The plan and its amendments: total revenue and costs.
- What cannot be seen
- How much of these costs is pay. The plan also changes during the year, so an “NFZ budget” without the date of the version says nothing.
Texts at this stop
- Start here
The NFZ budget and waiting lists, year by year
Costs in the financial plan of the National Health Fund (NFZ) have more than tripled since 2015, and roughly doubled after inflation. The average waiting time for a service grew by about 43% over the same period. For 2026 the Fund plans PLN 227.4 billion in costs and a PLN 33.6 billion subsidy from the state budget.×2in real terms since 2015 - Data
Hospital debt in Poland: salaries paid on credit
Public hospitals owe more than PLN 40 billion, and their debt is growing at the fastest rate in more than twenty years. It goes mainly on current spending, above all salaries — pay funded on credit, which we repay with public money.40.8PLN billion of debt - Analysis
COVID-19: billions without a transparent account
In 2020–2022 almost PLN 190 billion was spent from the COVID-19 Response Fund, outside the Public Finance Act. The Minister of Health spent 29% of the amount allocated to tasks. According to the Supreme Audit Office (NIK), almost PLN 9 billion in COVID-19 bonuses was paid out without control by the Minister of Health or the NFZ.~190PLN billion spent by the COVID-19 Fund
Stop 3 of 4 · Pricing and settlement with the hospital
What does the NFZ pay a hospital for?
Transparency1 of 3: price visible, cost not
The NFZ sets the price of services and pays the facility — hospitals in the hospital network mainly through a lump sum for the whole period. In 2015–2020 the independent tariff covered about 17% of the value of services; the remaining prices were set by the payer.
A network hospital is not paid for each procedure separately but receives a lump sum: an amount set in advance for the settlement period, whose size depends on the points reported earlier. So the transfer does not show how much a single procedure cost.
In primary care, the NFZ pays an annual rate for every patient on a doctor’s list, including those who do not come. Since July 2026 the base rate has been PLN 232.56 (≈ €53).
Payment does not always come straight away. According to the Supreme Audit Office (NIK), on 17 September 2024 the NFZ still owed PLN 1.65 billion for unlimited services from the first half of that year, and on 11 October about PLN 317 million.
Sources: NIK, pricing of services 2015–2020, Ministry of Health regulation on the lump sum, consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 item 878, NFZ President’s order no. 65/2026, NIK, audit of the NFZ 2021–2024.
about 37 services at a specialist clinic
That is how many your annual contribution would cover, namely PLN 6,909. In 2024, specialist clinics cost the NFZ PLN 17.9 billion for 94.9 million services, an average of PLN 189 each: a consultation or a test such as a CT or MRI scan. A network hospital is settled differently: it receives mainly a lump sum, not payment for each service. Estimate
Source: NFZ report for 2024. The average and the conversion to your contribution are our calculation. Change the wage
How many points did the hospital report?
The slider is at 97%. Move it one point to the right.
Points reported
97%
Base of the next lump sum
97%
threshold 98%
Below the threshold, the base becomes the number of points actually reported.
A hospital that reports at least 98% of points keeps the lump sum at its full base, so today’s points decide tomorrow’s money. Applies to network hospitals; we omit adjustments and tariff changes. Source: Minister of Health regulation of 22 September 2017, § 3(1), consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 item 878.
- What can be checked
- Prices in orders of the President of the NFZ and in AOTMiT tariffs.
- What cannot be seen
- What costs most prices were based on, and how much a single procedure actually cost.
Texts at this stop
- Start here
How the NFZ pays hospitals: lump sums, points and overperformance
A hospital in the hospital network receives a lump sum from the National Health Fund (NFZ) — an amount fixed in advance for the settlement period, based on the points it reported earlier. It keeps the full amount if it reports at least 98% of the points on which the lump sum was based, and only an NFZ inspection checks whether the settlements match the medical records.98%of the base points — the threshold for the full lump sum - Mechanisms
Pricing of healthcare services: who sets what the NFZ pays
The price of treatment was meant to be calculated by an independent agency on the basis of costs. Over five years such pricing covered about 17% of the value of services; the rest was set by the payer itself — and the price drifts away from the cost in both directions.~17%of the value of services is priced by the independent tariff - Analysis
Money per patient in primary care: a public rate, an unknown result
The per-patient rate in primary health care is public to the grosz, and yet nobody knows how much of it the doctor keeps. The way the rate is constructed also affects whom it is better to examine on the spot and whom to refer onwards. - Analysis
On-call duty in a county hospital: who pays and how much
A hospital must have a doctor on the ward around the clock, however many patients it has. Yet the NFZ pays it a lump sum based on reported services, not on staffing hours — and when the money runs short, the difference stays with the hospital, in the county budget or in debt.8,760hours a year for one on-call post - Mechanisms
Visits that never happened
The NFZ pays for an entry in the system, not for the visit itself. The only person outside the facility–Fund relationship who can notice a service that exists only on paper is the patient — and the Internet Patient Account lets you check this in a few minutes.>1,600justified reports from patients in 2024
Stop 4 of 4 · Payment to the doctor
How much of it does a doctor get?
Transparency0 of 3: total per person not public
The hospital pays the doctor a salary under an employment contract or — more often for specialists — an amount under a civil-law contract.
According to data from the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System (AOTMiT), 73.16% of specialists work under civil-law contracts, and the median payment under one specialist’s contract is PLN 25,595 (≈ €5,830) gross per month. Both figures concern contracts with a single hospital.
For salaried doctors, the statutory minimum pay is public. Nobody publishes contract amounts, and a doctor working in several facilities appears in the data as several unconnected entries.
Some amounts were disclosed by the facilities themselves. Full payrolls for 2025 were sent in the Watchdog Polska monitoring by 126 of the 1,358 facilities asked: 14,737 payroll entries, a median of about PLN 180,000 (≈ €41,000) a year, and 12% of the amounts exceed PLN 500,000. Each amount is a payment by one facility, so for a particular doctor it is a lower bound.
Sources: AOTMiT, February 2026, via Rzeczpospolita, Watchdog Polska, pay monitoring.
— here the trail ends
The NFZ pays the facility, the facility pays the doctor, and nobody publishes the total for one person. That is why we do not state what share of the contribution goes to doctors: it cannot be calculated honestly.
Who can see the total?
On the boards: Hospital. An illustration without amounts: three contracts of one person. Dot: visible. Small dot: partly or on request. Plus: not visible. Cross: no total exists.
Only fragments are known: each of these amounts is a payment from one facility
- What can be checked
- The statutory minimum for employees and aggregate AOTMiT data from individual facilities.
- What cannot be seen
- The total paid to one person by several facilities. The state can collect it; citizens will not see it.
What is known about the amounts
- Start here
Distribution of doctors’ pay in Poland
AOTMiT medians by form of employment, the statutory minimum for salaried doctors and payments above PLN 100,000 a month. Each of these amounts is a payment from one facility — nobody adds up the total earnings of one person.25,595PLN — median of a single specialist contract - Data
By specialty: resident doctors’ pay and training places
Resident pay, the rate in job advertisements, the number of training places and candidates per place in 29 specialties. The most applicants are in specialties outside the priority list, in which residents earn less.29specialties - Data
Doctors’ pay from disclosed payroll lists
In the Watchdog Polska monitoring, 126 facilities sent full annual payroll lists of their doctors — 14,737 payroll entries for 2025. The median is about PLN 180,000 a year, and 12% of the amounts exceed half a million, although each is a payment from only one facility.14,737payroll entries from 126 facilities - Data
Record payments to doctors in Poland
The highest disclosed payments to doctors from public money: from PLN 316 thousand for a month under a single contract to almost PLN 3 million for a year. Each amount is what one facility paid for one period, not a person’s total earnings.316,079PLN — the highest monthly contract in the public listing - Data
Doctors’ pay monitoring browser (in Polish)
Watchdog Polska asked 1,358 public facilities about doctors’ pay. See which of them disclosed the data, which refused and which did not reply at all.1,358facilities - Analysis
Doctor-councillors: annual income public by law
The asset declarations of local councillors are a rare place where a doctor’s annual income from a practice, employment and contracts can be seen at once. We checked 183 declarations collected by the X user @tomo9000p against the originals: for 2025 the median income from work was about PLN 633,000, and one person in eight exceeded a million.632.6PLN thousand — median income from work for 2025 (113 checked declarations) - Analysis
How much hospital directors earn in Poland, and what a pay chimney is
The salary of a public hospital director is capped by the so-called chimney act and can be seen in the director’s asset declaration. Eight cases from 2024–2025 show that record totals come mainly from medical work, while a doctor’s contract is subject neither to a ceiling nor to a duty of disclosure.6×the average wage — the pay ceiling of a SPZOZ director - Data
Other medical professions: pay scale and numbers
Nurses, midwives, paramedics, laboratory diagnosticians, physiotherapists, pharmacists. Their salaried pay is set by a single statutory scale — unlike doctors’ contracts, this part of pay is known to the last zloty.5.9nurses per 1,000 population
Why the total cannot be seen
- Mechanisms
Contract or employment: this decides what can be seen
About 73% of specialists work as a business or under a contract of mandate rather than as employees. Salaried pay is set by a public act, while nobody publishes contract amounts — and this difference decides whether it is possible to work out how much public money goes to one person.~73%of specialists on contracts - Mechanisms
Multiple jobs and parallel contracts
In a single month the same doctor may bill under contracts in several public facilities. Each sees only its own part — nobody adds up the total hours or the total pay. - Mechanisms
Lack of transparency: the total is not visible anywhere
A doctor may receive public money from several facilities, yet nobody publishes the total amount for one person. Only fragments are public: the asset declarations of those who must file them, and data that facilities have given to the media or that inspections have revealed.0published totals of payments to one person - Analysis
The Supreme Medical Chamber and doctors’ contracts
What the medical self-government has adopted on contracts and what its president has said. The chamber defends the contract as a form of work, proposes a common limit on hours for employment and contracts, and opposes collecting data on the pay of individual doctors. - Analysis
The pay data act: what the state collects and what it will not show
Since 5 August 2026 the minister of health may require facilities to provide data on the pay of each person, with their PESEL and PWZ numbers. The act provides for no regular cycle, no publication and no penalty.0provisions requiring publication - Analysis
Pay limits for Polish health professionals: what the act passed by the Sejm contains
The act passed by the Sejm sets the maximum hourly and monthly pay of health professionals in facilities with a National Health Fund (NFZ) contract. It also introduces a limit of two full-time posts, a ban on pay calculated as a percentage of the contract, contracts with individuals only and a ban on NFZ-funded work for false certification.16×the minimum wage per month — the combined ceiling
What next?
How it is elsewhere
What other countries publish about doctors’ pay and how that pay compares with the average.
Doctors’ pay: Poland compared with its neighbours
How Czechia, Germany, Austria and Sweden pay their doctors and what is publicly known about that pay. We compare pay with a single OECD measure: the ratio to the average wage in each country.2.9times the average wage — a salaried specialist in Poland (OECD)What doctors earn around the world
Doctors’ pay on an interactive globe: the ratio to the average wage, the amount in US dollars and purchasing power, plus pay transparency. OECD data and national statistical offices, with a source for every country.How Taiwan’s healthcare system works — and what it makes public
A single payer, a global budget and point-based pricing of services. Patients get a receipt for every visit and hospitals’ financial reports are public — the earnings of individual doctors are not.Canada: when the government imposes terms on doctors by law
Quebec passed a 13.04% cut in doctors’ fees and fines of up to CAD 500,000 a day in a single night. The fines were repealed after 48 days, and the cut before it took effect.13.04%cut in doctors’ fees legislated in Quebec
What can change
Public amounts, protected names: what we propose, which laws already exist and what the parties say about it.
Our demand: public amounts, protected names
The total pay of every person from all facilities contracted with the NFZ, every quarter, under a permanent identifier instead of a name.Draft amendment to art. 27a (in Polish)
Quarterly, pseudonymised pay data from facilities contracted with the NFZ. Two new points, with no changes to existing provisions.Acts on this site (in Polish)
Acts and bills described on the site, by stage: in force, in the Sejm and this site’s citizens’ draft. Each description is based on the text of the act, not on commentaries.Political barometer: the parties’ health policy (in Polish)
What parties propose in healthcare, with the same questions for each of them and a source for each claim. We start with an invitation: each party can present its programme.Common objections to pay transparency
Is pay transparency an attack on doctors, populism or an encouragement to emigrate? The most common objections to this site and our answers.
Euro amounts are approximate, converted at the National Bank of Poland mid rate of 6 November 2026 (table 217/A/NBP/2026): 1 EUR = 4.3925 PLN.
Editorial position
Public amounts, protected names.
We call on the state to publish, every quarter, the total pay of each person working in facilities with a National Health Fund (NFZ) contract — summed across all their workplaces, under a permanent identifier instead of a name.