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Poland HEALTH AND WELFARE
The fall of centralized state planning and the onset of
massive economic and social reform put new strains on
Poland's
health and welfare systems, whose nominally full and equal
coverage had been increasingly faulty in the 1980s. In the
last
decade of communist rule, national health care suffered
from poor
material support, inaccessible medical personnel and
facilities,
and poor organization. At the same time, critical national
health
indicators for the 1970s and 1980s showed many negative
trends.
Likewise, access to social services, nominally equal for
all
workers, was limited by the availability of welfare funds
in
individual enterprises during the communist era. Because
no
national standards existed, some enterprises offered their
employees no social services at all, while others offered
a wide
range. By 1989 the material position of low-income
families and
pensioners was especially desperate. The economic "shock
therapy"
begun in 1990 by the Balcerowicz Plan further reduced the
level
of guaranteed health and welfare services, to which a
large part
of Polish society had become accustomed under communist
regimes
(see Marketization and Stabilization
, ch. 3).
Data as of October 1992
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