Italy risks healthcare ‘by wealth’, where those who have the economic means will increasingly be able to guarantee treatment while those who do not have an adequate income will not be able to receive treatment: already currently, 42% of less well-off citizens are forced to give up to treatment because, not being able to obtain it within the public system, it does not have the means to turn to paid healthcare. The 21st ‘Hospitals and Health’ Report drawn up by Aiop (Italian Association of Private Hospitals) and Censis sends a signal alarming: even the weakest groups are pushed towards the private sector as they do not have access to the NHS due, often, to long waiting lists, and this causes further impoverishment of some categories.
The first data that emerges, collected on the basis of a Censis survey of 2 thousand citizens, is that 47.7% of users have a positive perception of the health service in their region (Ssr): 8.7% and 39% believes that local healthcare is of an excellent or good quality level. 28.1% instead express an opinion of sufficiency and 22.4% believe that the SSR is ‘insufficient’. But if more than one citizen in 5 expresses a negative opinion, the insufficiency of their SSR is nevertheless reported by only 9.4% of residents in the North-East compared to as many as 35.2% of users living in the Southern areas. One of the biggest problems remains the long waiting lists. The consequence is that in the last 12 months, the Report notes, 16.3% of people who needed to turn to health services went to another region, as part of the services provided by the Health Service. The most recurrent reason for mobility is precisely the long waiting lists in the region to which they belong, says 31% of healthcare migrants. but there is also a share of 34.9% who give up and turn to paid healthcare (understood as pure private and intramoenia).
ANSA Agency Meloni, towards a rule on waiting lists and healthcare mobility – News – Ansa.it Particular attention to travel to other regions for treatment (ANSA)In 2023, however, the most serious figure concerns that 42% of patients with lower incomes, up to 15 thousand euros, who were forced to procrastinate or give up healthcare because they were unable to access the NHS and were unable to bear the costs of paid healthcare. 36.9% of Italians have instead given up other expenses to support healthcare: it is 50.4% among low incomes and 22.6% among high incomes. A phenomenon that is now intolerable, commented the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci at the presentation of the Report: “Already the 2017 Istat data indicate that in Italy those with a higher education qualification, and therefore earn more, live longer than those with a lower educational qualification. This is unacceptable,” he said. But the minister also put the spotlight on another figure: “51% of Italians turn to private healthcare directly, without first requesting the necessary public healthcare service: this is a critical issue and this attitude of mistrust, even without having first tried the NHS, it can also be a consequence of a representation of a healthcare system in crisis, but this is not always the case.
We must recover this part of Italians”. Schillaci then recalled that “we are ahead in Europe in various areas and services, and a different narrative of our NHS is necessary”. He then indicated the reduction of waiting lists as a “priority of the government”, recalling that “an accurate plan on this will soon be operational”. Another issue is that of personnel. Also today, in a hearing in the Chamber, Schillaci assured that “within the year, after 17 years, we will be able to overcome the spending cap on hiring”. The risk of healthcare ‘by census’, however, looms large and the general secretary of Censis Giorgio De Rita calls for a rapid response: “An acceleration is necessary because social tensions are accumulating and this it is not a luxury that we can afford”, he warns. Positive signals, concludes the Aiop president Barbara Cittadini, however come from the latest budget law, “thanks to the additional resources provided for the waiting lists and also to the possibility of purchasing services from private to reduce the same”.
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