Healthcare for the homeless, the Chamber approves the PD law

The House unanimously gives the go-ahead with 227 yes votes to the PD bill first signed by Marco Furfaro for healthcare for homeless people. The text now goes to the Senate for consideration. The text provides for the start of an experiment, with the assignment of a family doctor, for two years 2025 and 2026 for the 14 metropolitan cities (Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Messina, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Reggio CalabriaRome, Turin and Venice) with a total allocation of 2 million euros.
The text – explained by Dem sources – is the result of a discussion that lasted more than a year, starting from April 2023 to identify an audience of beneficiaries compatible with the resources made available by the government. The original plan envisaged assigning a family doctor to all homeless people. The cost would have been around 4 million euros. In the end the agreement with the government and the majority was to start a two-year trial 2025 and 2026 only with regard to the 14 metropolitan cities (Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Messina, Milan, Naples , Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Turin and Venice) with a total allocation of 2 million euros. Homeless people will be able to register in the local health authority registers with the help of the associations. In this way, the Democratic Party explains, it reaches over 60% of homeless people who currently lack local healthcare. According to the party’s calculations, it is possible to quantify the audience of possible users of the law (i.e. homeless and homeless people, Italian or foreigners regularly residing in Italy) in a range between 50 thousand and 60 thousand people. There therefore remains an audience of 60 thousand homeless citizens (almost entirely Italian citizens because foreign citizens with a regular residence permit are unlikely to be homeless as they would not be able to renew the permit itself) who do not have residency and consequently have neither rights nor services, including the assignment of a general practitioner who performs a ‘filter’ function for pharmaceutical assistance, specialist services and hospital assistance. Meanwhile, five regions: Emilia Romagna, Puglia, Abruzzo, Liguria and Marche have already approved a regional law which guarantees a general practitioner to homeless people (without residence). While Piedmont in 2022 established the figure of the ‘socio-health tutor’ with the task of accompanying homeless people in taking care of their socio-health care.