A health policy program is a set of planned and intended health care activities that are planned and implemented by the Minister of Health or a local government unit. These activities must be judged effective, safe and reasonable. They must also make it possible to achieve the established goals within a certain timeframe. Among these objectives appear the detection and realization of specific health needs and the improvement of the health status of a specific group of recipients. Health policy programs in Poland can be financed from the funds of municipal, county and provincial governments. They can be a form of implementation of public health tasks. Programs implemented in primary health care, for example, concern prevention and early detection of infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, or metabolic disorders. 

The National Health Fund, which is the public payer of health services in Poland, has been allowed to subsidize health policy programs since 2017. For 2024, the institution has granted funding for the implementation of health policy programs to only 60 local governments (2.1% of the total number of local government units in Poland). A total of more than PLN 6.7 million was allocated for the implementation of health policy programs, which translates into a budget utilization for this purpose of about 18.8%. The observed situation undoubtedly indicates the existence of barriers for local governments in obtaining funds from the National Health Fund for the implementation of health policy programs. In practice, these are primarily obstacles related to the insufficient knowledge of officials, the limitation of the possibility of obtaining funding only for guaranteed benefits, as well as the rather extensive reporting required by the public payer. Engaging in dialogue with primary health care providers, who are the implementers of most health policy programs, is also a significant problem.