Patient Funds and Their Legal Status Through the Prism of the Historical Experience of the Precarpathian Region (1919–1939)

Based on archival, published historical documents, as well as other available information sources, the peculiarities of the legal status of patient funds that had been operated in the Precarpathian region during the Polish period in 1919–1939 years (the ІІ Republic of Poland, in polish II Rzeczpospolita Polska), were discussed in light of a prototypical health insurance system. It was found that modern domestic experience, although small, shows that the peculiarities of the legal status of patient funds, which operated in the Precrpathian region during the Polish period in 1919–1939 as a prototype of health insurance, have the potential to use positive historical experience and understanding of the problem of state regulation of medical activities. It is established that the legal status of patient funds, ie their position in the legal reality, is reflected in the constituent documents, and, particularly, in the main of them – in the statute of these organizations. The analysis of these documents allows determining the features of the regulation of their activities in relation with society and the state, the set of rights and responsibilities of both the organization in general and its members in particular. The vision of the present through a kind of prism of the past contributes to a better understanding of management processes and decisions, helps to understand the inner life of a certain historical period with all its manifestations and ideas, and helps to better understand modern state policy to build an effective system of health care in general and health insurance in particular.