OBJECTIVE: To compare the costs of hypertension in Poland, measured from the third party payer perspective and the societal perspective. METHODS: The retrospective analysis of the 9286 patients’ records derived from a scientific project conducted among GPs’ in the whole of Poland in the year 2000. The time horizon was 12 months. Calculations were made from the third-party payer perspective including costs of: drug reimbursement, physicians’ consultations, laboratory, diagnostic tests and hospitalisation. The unit costs were obtained from the Polish National Health Fund. Calculations from the societal perspective were also made to evaluate patient expenditure on drugs and indirect costs. RESULTS: Direct medical costs constituted 59% of the total hypertension costs in Poland (214€ per patient per year), 16% of which represented the cost of pharmacological treatment. Indirect costs (41%) amounted to 148€ per patient per year. Assuming that 8.5 million Poles suffer from hypertension, the total societal burden of hypertension could reach 1.53€ billion annually. From the third-party payer perspective, distribution of the costs was as follows: laboratory and diagnostic tests 21%, hospitalization 31%, physicians’ consultations, 37% and drugs only 11%, because of an extremely high patient co-payment rate of 67%. The total, annual third party payer burden of hypertension amounted to 723€ million (172€ per patient), which equalled 47.5% of the total societal costs, including indirect costs. Assuming 400,000 new cases of hypertension annually, total costs related to the incidence of hypertension in Poland could reach 65.7€ million. CONCLUSION: The costs of hypertension impact on the third party payer and Polish society to the same extent. High patient co-payment for antihypertensive drugs and a relatively low reimbursement rate, lead to limited access to innovative therapies, which may cause a gradual increase in hypertension costs in Poland in the future.