Is yours an attempt to divert attention from the faults of a center-right government that is underfunding healthcare?
“Not at all. Tax evaders are the first culprits, but politics doesn’t come out well. Whether it is centre-right as today or centre-left as in the past. I have read the appeal and I agree that the healthcare system, objectively in trouble and with insufficient resources, must be protected because health is the supreme good”.
Something tells me, however, that he simply doesn’t want to sign the appeal…
“I want to avoid making the equation ‘Let’s save the healthcare system’ equal to ‘Let’s only save the public hospitals’.”
In fact you work for an accredited private healthcare group.
“In reality, the DNA of San Raffaele since its birth in 1971 has been of public function. But that’s not the issue. I see it as if there were a father who has two children and decides to take care of only one of the two. For me, the risk at the moment is that accredited private hospitals, which are fully part of the national health service, are neglected and underestimated in their function”.
What is he asking?
“I’m tired of the prejudice against the accredited private sector which seems to be an absolute evil, while it contributes to 35% of hospitalizations in the national health service.”
The problem is that the accredited private individual mainly provides the services with the most profitable reimbursements, i.e. those that are most convenient for him.
«We are ready to do our part to save the national health system. And I also say this on behalf of all 18 hospitals of the San Donato Group, the first accredited private healthcare operator in Italy.”
Why the need to demonstrate this availability today?
«When faced with a system in crisis such as the healthcare system, we must all think together about the causes in order to find solutions. Without ideology, but in a pragmatic way.”
Don’t tell me that the solution to public health problems is to give more money to accredited private individuals.
«The accredited private individual has the right to have his say and to be listened to and also, if anything, to be corrected. In any case, it should be remembered that accredited private individuals have an annual spending ceiling which limits the range of public services they can provide”.
And we prefer to focus on paid activities.
«To offer services with the national health service to as many patients as possible, San Raffaele exceeded its allocated budget by almost 10 million euros. I think this data speaks for itself. The main way to move from words to deeds is for those who can afford it to pay to receive treatment in order to free up places in the health service for those who don’t have the possibility. In the pharmacy I never even thought about providing my tax code to deduct the cost of medicines”.
The problem is that today, faced with long waiting lists, even those who cannot afford it are forced to pay or not receive treatment.
“I have been denouncing for some time that treatment has become a luxury in Italy.”
But then he works in a place of undisputed excellence, but considered the hospital of the rich. Without mentioning his VIP patients.
“My mobile phone is a virtual clinic open 365 days a year for anyone. And thousands of non-wealthy patients are treated at San Raffaele. I don’t fall into the trap of those who maintain that it is only the public that is valuable and that the others are smart people who want to get rich.”
Those who pay get the services in record time, however, while the others wait.
“This is why today more than ever we need the courage to make choices. Which also means rewarding the best hospitals and closing the useless and above all dangerous ones because they carry out little activity.”
