Retrospective Medical Law: Medical Insurance in Prykarpattia During the Second Polish Republic’s Rule (1919–1939)

Abstract

The study based on archival, published historical documents and other available information sources highlights the activity of sickness funds that functioned in Ukraine on the territory of modern Prykarpattia during the period of Polish rule in 1919–1939 (the Second Polish Republic, in Polish: II Rzeczpospolita Polska) as a prototype of health insurance. The analysis of these documents allows to deter-mine the peculiarities of the activity of these institutions in relations with society and the state, methods of financing, rights and obligations of the members of these organizations, specific features of the decision-making management, insurance cases and ways of compensation. The retrospective approach used in this study makes it possible to recreate the picture of the past in the field of health care in general and health insurance in particular, even with the lack of historical and legal sources of a certain historical period. Seeing the present through a peculiar prism of the past helps to dive into the inner life of the society with all its manife-stations and ideas contributing to better understanding of modern social processes. In other words, the longer you look back, the further you see ahead.