The cost of the government in vitro program is 600 thousand zloty per child? These are incorrect calculations.

Pravda

Journalist Tomasz Sommer questioned the profitability of the government-funded in vitro program on social media by claiming that the cost of giving birth to a single child is 600,000 złoty. The calculations he cited are incorrect and based on false assumptions. Let's see how much in vitro support really costs.

Journalist Tomasz Sommer questioned the profitability of the government-funded in vitro program on social media, claiming that the cost of giving birth to one child is 600,000 złotys. The calculations he cited are incorrect and based on false assumptions. Let's see how much in vitro support really costs. 

“The Polish state has spent nearly two billion złotys on in vitro in less than two years. 1,700 children have been born. Dividing this, it turns out that one child cost 600,000 złotys. Someone here has probably gone completely crazy” – reads the post by Tomasz Sommer published on the platform X on June 11, 2025. 

Post published on X on June 11, 2025, has received over 500,000 views and nearly 4,000 likes (as of June 20, 2025). 

The journalist's post was supplemented with so-called Community Notes – annotations by users of the X platform, correcting inaccuracies and providing context. The Ministry of Health also commented on it, denying the information contained therein. 

Response from the Ministry of Health to Tomasz Sommer's post. 

Cost and effectiveness of the program

According to the statement of the Ministry of Health, the government in vitro support program started on June 1, 2024, and will last until December 31, 2028, with an annual budget of 500 million złotys. PAP at the end of May 2025 reported that the total funding for in vitro procedures so far has exceeded 800 million złotys – less than a billion, as Tomasz Sommer wrote. Additionally, the Ministry of Health allocated another 100 million złotys for ongoing support of the program.

The calculation presented in the discussed post is based on a false assumption – the author simply divided expenses by the number of children already born, and ignored the fact that the program has only just started and many pregnancies are still ongoing.

From the statement of the Prime Minister's Office and the post by Minister Izabela Leszczyna published on June 11, 2025, it follows that since the resumption of government funding for in vitro, 1,676 children have been born – Sommer rounded this number to 1,700. However, he did not take into account that the program has been running for only a year, and pregnancy lasts about nine months.

This means that many couples are still expecting the birth of a child. As stated in the Prime Minister's Office post on the platform X, currently 13,909 women are pregnant, and 33,737 couples have already qualified for the program. So it is too early to draw definitive conclusions about the program's effectiveness. 

False assumptions, misleading conclusions

The claim that “the cost of one child” in the in vitro program is 600,000 złotys is based on false assumptions – the program is still ongoing, and a significant portion of its participants are still expecting the birth of a child.

The program has been active only since June 1, 2024, and as of the end of May 2025, the state has allocated about 800 million złotys for its implementation. So far, 1,676 children have been born, but many more people participate in the program – currently, 13,909 women are pregnant, and a total of 33,737 couples have qualified. 

The calculations presented in the discussed post are based on simplifications and false assumptions – the author ignored the fact that most pregnancies are still ongoing. A full assessment of the program's effectiveness and costs will only be possible after its completion in December 2028.

We contacted the Ministry of Health to confirm the data cited in media statements. We will update the article once we receive a response.

The topic was verified also by the FakeNews.pl website, which pointed out the discrepancy between Sommer's post content and the Community Notes – it was not the journalist, but commentators and users of the X platform who circulated the figure of two billion złotys.