Poland could avert up to 19,000 deaths each year by increasing health spending

Analyses published by the business daily Puls Biznesu estimate that Poland’s health‑care expenditure – about $4,300 per capita in purchasing‑power parity terms – is well below the OECD average of roughly $6,000. If public and private spending were raised to the OECD mean, the models suggest that avoidable mortality could fall by between 10,500 and 19,000 lives annually and life expectancy would rise by more than a year. Current figures show a Polish average life expectancy of 78.4 years versus 81.1 years in OECD countries, and an avoidable‑mortality rate of 316 deaths per 100,000 people compared with 222 in the developed‑country average.

The reports stress that higher financing must be paired with greater efficiency, shifting resources toward prevention, primary‑care services and faster diagnostics to realise the projected health gains.