The COVID-19 Pandemic and Elderly People’s Rights to Social Security and Health Protection

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic brought to light certain deficiencies in the social security infrastructure which should guarantee social security for all Polish citizens while ensuring, in particular, the possibility of exercising the right to health protection and social services for functionally disabled people. The pandemic became a “detonator” revealing, both in the scientific and public discourses, problems connected with the effective exercise of the rights to social security and health protection vested in elderly people, including those with functional disabilities. The article notably focuses on two areas of social life in which compliance with fundamental rights related to the dignity of a human being is linked to the respect and observance of rights related to the functioning of a specific age group – people over 60 years of age. The pace of demographic changes is not without impact on the quality of life of elderly people. The article attempts at outlining the problems triggered by the demographic changes taking place in Polish society and at indicating the legal context, often related to the specific needs of senior citizens, or, more accurately, to the failure to satisfy these needs. The purpose is to shed light on the social dimension of respecting elderly people’s rights to social support in the form of providing access to social security and health care institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The questions asked are: Are elderly people’s rights to social security and adequate health protection respected in Poland? Did the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic improve or worsen the situation in Poland in this regard?