HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN ITALY

Running head: HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN ITALY
Healthcare system in Italy
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HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN ITALY1
Italy has an exceptional living standard and quality of life which is the outcome of
successful welfare measures taken by the government and well-established health policies.
This paper focuses on the overall structure, provisions, and scheme of the health care system
in Italy and its comparison with the health care system in the United States.
According to the National Health service of Italy, the healthcare system is based on
universal coverage, including citizens, foreign residents, immigrants, and visitors, where they
have access to all facilities of healthcare services. Different healthcare services include
outpatient and inpatient care; positive lists which are provided to all residents that come free
of cost; negative lists services consist of surgeries which are not offered to the patients free of
charge, prescription drugs, medications administered only in the hospital setting; lastly dental
care which is limited to children and emergency cases. This healthcare system was set up in
the year 1978 following the guidelines that meet the health needs of the public with an
agreement, human dignity and universal coverage in Italy
(International.commonwealthfund.org, 2020). The health services are provided at the level of
a regional and national basis. The regional health units managed by the general manager,
offer health services that are supervised by the 19 regions and two provinces. The general
nurses provide nursing care to patients who do not work on prescribing and diagnosis, but the
advance practice nurses can perform diagnosis and prescribe along with educating trainees
and communicating with other professionals regarding patient care. The preventive care
model is followed by this system which allows diagnosis of chronic diseases and primary
care free of cost (Nuti et al., 2016).
A patient’s copayment and out-of-pocket payments finance the healthcare system.
The payment for the general practitioners (GP), continuous care physicians and, outpatient
specialists are decided by the central government. The global budget and group-based
payment system generate hospital revenue and physicians of the hospital receive a salary.