Healthcare in Italy

[1][2] The Italian healthcare system employs a Beveridge model, and operates on the assumption that health care is a human right that should be provided to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

[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.

In the 1970s the social health insurance faced severe equity problems as coverage differed between the sickness funds, around 7% of the population remained uninsured, especially in the South.

Due to growing public dissatisfaction with the existing healthcare system, Italian policymakers led by the Christian-Democrats instituted structural reform.

[11] In Italy, physicians who are salaried by the State within the National Health Service can also engage in freelance practice, charging as private practitioners (the socalled intra moenia).

[12] Against this problem, on 4 June 2024, the Meloni government passed a decree which provides for the obligation for doctors of the National Health Service to carry out a lower number of hours of independent profession (intra moenia) than those of ordinary activity.

In June 2024 the Meloni government introduced the opening of specialist doctors' clinics and facilities that carry out diagnostic tests on Saturdays and Sundays.

There is evidence of internal patient movement probably driven by a search for better quality care generally from the poorer and less developed southern regions to the more prosperous north.