Healthcare in Italy
Italy's healthcare system is consistently ranked among the best in the world.
The Italian state has run a universal public healthcare system since 1978.[7] The public part is the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, which is organised under the Ministry of Health and administered on a devolved regional basis, in consequence of the 2001 Italian constitutional referendum.
History
After World War II, Italy re-established its social security system including a social health insurance administered by sickness funds and private insurances. In the 1970s the
National Health Service
The National Health Service was created in 1978.[9] Healthcare is provided to all citizens and residents by a mixed public-private system. The public part is the national health service, Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN), which is organized under the Ministry of Health and is administered on a regional basis.
Prescription drugs can be acquired only if prescribed by a doctor. If prescribed by the family doctor, they are generally subsidized, requiring only a copay that depends on the medicine type and on the patient income (in many regions all the prescribed drugs are free for the poor). Over-the-counter drugs are paid out-of-pocket. Both prescription and over-the-counter drugs used to be sold only in licensed shops (farmacia), although a 2006 law decree liberalised the sale of over-the-counter drugs in supermarkets and other shops (parafarmacia). In a sample of 13 developed countries, Italy was sixth in its population weighted usage of medication in 14 classes in 2009 and fifth in 2013. The drugs studied were selected on the basis that the conditions treated had a high incidence, prevalence and/or mortality, caused significant long-term morbidity and incurred high levels of expenditure and significant developments in prevention or treatment had been made in the last 10 years. The study noted considerable difficulties in cross-border comparison of medication use.[10]
Visits by
Performance
Surgeries and hospitalization provided by public hospitals or by conventional private ones are completely free of charge for everyone, regardless of their income.
The Italian National Outcomes Programme (in
Emergency medicine
The
The primary emergency telephone number for emergency medical service in Italy is still 118, since the European emergency number (112) doesn't work in many regions yet. Emergency medical service is always free of charge.
First aid is provided by all the public hospitals: for urgent cases it is completely free of charge for everyone (even for an undocumented
See also
References
- ^ "The World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems". Photius.com. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
- ^ "Italy's Struggling Economy Has World's Healthiest People". Bloomberg.com. 2017-03-20. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
- ISBN 978-1-4408-6844-3.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link - ^ "Health status - Life expectancy at birth - OECD Data". theOECD. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
- ^ "Life Expectancy in Italy". World Life Expectancy. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
- ^ "Total health expenditure as share of GDP in Italy from 2005 to 2020". Retrieved 12 June 2022.
- ^ "Italy – Health". Dev.prenhall.com. Archived from the original on 1 July 2009. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
- ^ "Frisina Doetter, Lorraine and Götze, Ralf (2011) "The Changing Role of the State in the Italian Healthcare System", TranState Working Papers No. 150". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2012-10-15.
- .
- ^ Office of health Economics. "International Comparison of Medicines Usage: Quantitative Analysis" (PDF). Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 November 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
- ^ "Classi di priorità e tempi d'attesa" [Priority classes and waiting times]. Regione Piemonte: Sanita (in Italian). Retrieved 15 February 2016.
- ^ "Programma Nazionale Esiti 2022" [2022 National Outcomes Programme, PNE] (in Italian).
- ^ "Outcomes in EHCI 2015" (PDF). Health Consumer Powerhouse. 26 January 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
- ^ "Assistenza Sanitaria Per Cittadini Stranieri". Prefettura.it (in Italian). Ministero dell'interno. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
External links
- Italy - Information by World Health Organization
- Ministry of Health in Italy
- OECD Reviews of Health Care Quality: Italy 2014: Raising Standards. ISBN 978-92-64-22541-1. Retrieved December 19, 2015.