Are pricing and reimbursement decision-making criteria aligned with public preferences regarding allocation principles in the Polish healthcare sector?

Given growing interest in multicriteria decision making and multiple cost-effectiveness thresholds' approach, it was decided to investigate its usefulness in Poland. The pricing and reimbursement (P&R) regulations were reviewed and a cross-sectional survey was conducted amongst nurses. The study investigated whether P&R rules are aligned with the preferences of healthcare professional towards the concept of equity. The references to aversion to inequalities in health and capacity to benefit were recognized as the most and least important principle respectively by the group of nurses. Different weightings of health gain dependent on disease severity were accepted by half of the study's population. In the review of legal acts, references to capacity to benefit were frequently found. The opposite was registered for other concepts of equity. There is room for further improvement with respect to the alignment between the Polish P&R decision making criteria and public preferences regarding allocation principles.