THE EAGLE. The regional council, during the urgent session which ended in the evening in L’Aquila, approved by majority (in favor of the centre-right, against the centre-left oppositions) the bill for «the coverage of the deficit of the regional health service resulting from the income statement as of the fourth quarter of 2023″. The provision provides for the establishment of a new chapter on the 2024 budget for the sum of 68,593,330 euros.
Healthcare, regional council on debt restructuring
Extraordinary meeting after the unfavorable opinion of the Board of Auditors on the resolution on the bill to cover the deficit. Sighs: “Reflection on the ASL directors”
Immediately after approval, the bureaucratic process for publication began given that the document is an integral part of the recovery plan that the regional government is called to present on May 27th in Rome, at the monitoring table at which the former ” Rogue regions”, including Abruzzo, which left in 2017, ten years after being placed under commissionership, are still subjected.
In essence, the Council proposes to use the 2024 collections of regional Irap and Irpef taxes for a value of 35,644,029 euros; the remaining part of the sum derives from savings generated by the administration surplus of the 2022 statement (13,997,124 euros) and from shares obtained from transfers from various chapters of the budget dedicated to Healthcare (18,952,175 euros). On the council resolution, brought to the attention of the council, there was an unfavorable opinion from the board of auditors; but the majority confirmed the architecture by producing the counterarguments of the budget manager Luigi Colangelo.
The opposition’s criticisms respected the time limits set for 8pm. The president of the regional council, Marco Marsilio, and the health councilor Nicoletta Verì defended the actions of the majority, reconfirmed for the next mandate, in the first five of administration.
Furthermore, the law establishes the obligation on the part of individual local health authorities to prepare plans for the rationalization of available resources in order to guarantee the effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the health services offered. The plans must be sent to the Region’s Health Department within 30 days of the publication of the law. In case of failure to approve the plan by the Department, the Local Health Authority will have to make the requested changes and resubmit it within 30 days of communication of the negative outcome of the investigation. The plans must also be transmitted to Commissions I and V of the Regional Council, which, after illustrating the contents and sustainability by the Health Department, express a mandatory and binding opinion, within the following 15 days, for the purposes of approval by the Council. .
Furthermore, the chamber unanimously approved an agenda, shared by all the Groups, which in reference to article 2 of the law, states: “The regional council believes that in the event of failure to approve a rationalization plan of an ASL, the latter is required to resubmit it within 15 days of communication of the denial. In case of failure to transmit the changes, the Department will warn the non-compliant director to proceed within 10 days. If the general director does not do so, the regional council, on the proposal of the health councilor, may appoint an ad acta commissioner, after consulting Commissions I and V of the regional council”.
THE COMMENT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. Marco Marsilio: «Let’s cover this deficit without interventions, tears and blood, without increasing taxes, without cutting sensitive services, with the prospect that as soon as the approval of the budget adjustment arrives in the next few months, the assessment of the increased revenues, we will balance this point. We must highlight that there has never been out-of-control spending or healthcare in deep red. In five years we have received over 13,500 million euros from the State to manage public health, we will have spent 13,560 less than 0.5% more”.
THE M5S COMMENTS. Erika Alessandrini and Francesco Taglieri, regional councilors of the 5 Star Movement: “The desire on the part of this regional government to go against the negative opinion of the auditors regarding the plan to refinance the healthcare deficit appears as risky as it is the result of a total lack of responsibility on a political level. Trying to cover this deficit by drawing on the TFR/TFS funds of Abruzzo Region employees also demonstrates the total absence of a virtuous project through which to make up for the financial disaster that the Marsilio government has generated. A dangerous and alarming prospect from both a technical and political point of view. The words of Councilor Gatti are also worrying, suggesting that there will be linear cuts to healthcare in Abruzzo”.
