Polish Health Care: Examination of Corruption

The purpose of this essay is to examine the phenomenon of corruption in the health-care system in Poland. The plan of the essay will be to set forth the social and political context in which Poland's current health-care system operates and then to discuss how corruption is operationalized, with a view toward identifying the scope of the problem of health-care corruption and forecasting possible lines of reform and development.

It is no secret that in the United States there is widespread dissatisfaction with the system of health-care delivery, which is perceived as expensive and subject to the bureaucratic discretion of payment officials who may have no medical expertise but a good deal of insurance authority. Some advocates call for a single-payer system of care similar in structure to the Medicare plan. Reference is not infrequently made to the "free"--that is, tax-funded--health care available in Europe.

But European health care is not uniform or uniformly available in all countries. In particular in the emerging post-Soviet states of Eastern Europe, the health care systems have an irregular structure. The irregularity is, indeed, the structure of corruption. That has been attributed to the fact that Poland remains a country in political, social, and economic transition out of the communist model to a capitalist or democratic-socialist model. Health care in Poland straddles the gap between capitalism and social democracy because its funding mechani

Related Essays

Hand Cleansing with Antimicrobial Soap .... Examination of the hands and nails of technicians .... that chipped fingernail polish or fingernail polish worn longer .... be restricted in certain health care settings .... (4015 16 )

Alternative Treatment of Cancer .... Dr Stanislaw Burzynski, a Polish cancer researcher .... Wellness Plan emphasizes preventive care, and subscribers .... that includes a complete health history, examination .... (4682 19 )

Unconventional Cancer Treatments Introduction.............. ... .... Dr Stanislaw Burzynski, a Polish cancer researcher .... Wellness Plan emphasizes preventive care, and subscribers .... that includes a complete health history, examination .... (4682 19 )

Poland This report focuses on Poland, .... Structural reforms advanced in pensions, health care, and public .... 2000) have suggested that Polish companies have .... suggesting that a re-examination of attitudes .... (9851 39 )

Cultural & Economic Profile of Poland This .... Structural reforms advanced in pensions, health care, and public .... 2000) have suggested that Polish companies have .... suggesting that a re-examination of attitudes .... (9846 39 )

that a single-person household that brings in $10,400 per year is at the poverty level; a four-person household making $22,200 per year is at the poverty level (U.S. Department of State, 2008). The scale of the problem of corruption in the health system in Poland is widely recognized in the country, evidently by the same people who are obliged to operate within its limits. Beginning in 1998, Transparency International Polska, a national chapter of the parent organization, began to conduct regular reviews of the scale of corruption inside Poland and publish its findings on the Internet. As of 2007, TIP was reporting that Poles rated the country's health-care system as one of its four most corrupt institutions, behind political parties, parliament, and the private sector. Among the newer members of the European Union that surveyed their populations for opinions about corruption, only the Czech Republic and Greece were found to be more systemically corrupt than Poland (TIP, 2007). One reason informal payments are destructive to Poland's health-care system is that they blur the lines of responsibility for publicly paid health-care providers to provide a high standard of care for all patients. Another is that accounta

Category: Medical - P