The Dispute Regarding the Methods of Financing Medical Treatment for Poor Jews in Healthcare Institutions from 1918 to 1925

Abstract

Until the end of the interwar Poland, the method of covering the cost of treatment in hospitals for poor patients was not uniformly regulated across the country. The Polish legislation normalised the matters in this area in 1926, but only in the territories of the former Russian partition.

The purpose of this article, however, is to draw attention to another extremely socially sensitive problem, occurring until mid‑1925 in the former territory of the Kingdom of Poland. Indeed, it was only at that time that the law on covering the costs of medical treatment for poor Jews, who were permanent residents of the communities in the territory of the former Congress Kingdom was passed. It implemented the demands of the Jewish population that the costs of treatment in hospitals for poor Jews should be covered in the manner applied to Christians.
This is because the Russian partition authorities established, based on religious criteria, different ways of covering the costs of treating poor patients.

This is because they assumed the “spread” of these costs among the members of the Jewish religious community and, in the case of Christians, among the remaining members of the political
community.

This dissimilarity turned into inequality, to the detriment of the Jewish population, when the political communities departed from the system of “spreading” these costs and paid them (for Christians) out of the community budget, when for poor Jews they were still paid by the religious community. The issue has escalated since public health care came under the authority of the political community, as previously anticipated by the municipal ordinance of 19 June 1915 for territories pertaining to areas of the Russian Poland under the German administration, and subsequently by the decrees of 4 February 1919, regarding the municipal and district self‑government.

Subsequently, the expenses associated with the treatment of poor Christians were typically financed through the budget of the political community, whereas, in the case of Jews, such costs continued to be borne by the religious community. Members of this community undertook financial responsibilities on behalf of the political community, in a manner consistent with the obligations of all its members.

This is because, despite the protests of the Jewish circles, the Interior Ministry still took the position that in the matter of paying for the hospital treatment of poor Jews, the previous regulations from the time of the Kingdom of Poland should be applied in their entirety. A change in this position and the payment of medical expenses in hospitals for poor Jews, in the manner applied to Christians, was enforced by the Constitution of 17 March 1921.