Healthcare, Calabria continues not to spend on health

Healthcare, Calabria continues not to spend on health; In the latest minutes of the Ministries the Lea issue is reiterated, there is money but it is not used

COSENZA – The essential levels of assistance, i.e. all the services that the regions are obliged to provide to citizens, improve very little in the hospital area, bordering on sufficiency. The rest is as always, there is a very serious problem with the budgets (to be resubmitted) and with debt recognition, a problem which has led to the “freezing” of the funds. But above all, Calabria continues to keep money in its coffers without investing in health services and the health of its citizens.

This time too, the ministerial technicians called to monitor the region in its now eternal recovery plan do not go lightly. And, in a very unusual way, in the minutes of the meeting of January 22nd, the clash between the technicians and the president-commissioner Occhiuto is also put in black and white.
The numbers speak clearly: at the end of 2022 Calabria closed with a “hole” of 74.6 million. To cover it there is above all the revenue due to the highest taxes in Italy. Paid by the Calabrians to keep the regional health system running: 111 million. Then there are 8.5 million “social contributions” and updated estimates of tax revenues from previous years. Total 120.9 million euros. In the end, Calabria closes with yet another operating surplus of 46.313 million euros. No more holes.

But the problem is right here, for the third consecutive vote the technicians of the Ministry of Economy and Health are telling Calabria that the money is not being spent on citizens’ healthcare. In other words, the region is late on all the measures necessary to restart the healthcare system “in rubble” repeatedly described by the president-commissioner. «The surplus that is observed after the coverage in the year 2022 – we read in the minutes – is connected to the delay in the interventions, as also highlighted by the numerous provisions of the resources of the indistinct and restricted regional health fund, which should have been implemented for the strengthening of the LEAs, hoped for by the numerous national legislative initiatives in support of the Calabria Region which have taken place over the years and by the registration of State contributions in support of the Calabria Region’s recovery plan which appear not to be used”.

Now, healthcare in Calabria he is in a difficult grip. Because in the meantime the issue of company balance sheets seriously poses difficulties for the future. According to estimates for 2023, the Region is already in deficit by 27 million. But what is written in the financial statements of individual companies is largely unreliable and not definitively approved. In other words, the 2022 financial statements of all companies will need to be resubmitted.
These discrepancies are combined with uncertainty about the debt (which amounts to one billion in 2022 alone). The investigation into past debt is still ongoing: more than a year after the investigation, the companies are still verifying the invoices. And the Financial Police is checking the individual steps. Out of almost 873 million in commercial debt in 2020, in January there were at least approximately 406 million euros to be verified.

Not only that: there remains a difference between what was declared by the suppliers and what was recorded in the accounts, a very heavy residue of the “oral accounting” of previous years. The tables ask for certain times to conclude this step while certifying the “punishment”. Misalignments between the budgets and an unresolved litigation case mean that the revenues «deriving from fiscal maneuvers – also for the portion that is in excess of the need to cover the loss of the healthcare budget» are to be considered unavailable «until it is definitively quantified the stock of debt and not all corporate and consolidated financial statements will be approved, even for previous years”.