Private healthcare spending up 10% in a year - GIMBE

4.5 mn forego treatment in 'point of no return' says report

By: ansa.it

Oct 08 2024
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Private healthcare spending up

Private healthcare spending over the course of 2023 has risen by 10.3% with nearly 4.5 million people having to forego treatment, independent health foundation GIMBE reported on Tuesday.
    The rising number of patients turning to private healthcare after struggling in vain to get NHS treatment, together with regional and territorial inequalities which force patients to travel across Italy to find adequate treatment, long waiting lists and crowded emergency rooms "show that the survival of the national health service is approaching a point of no return", according to the seventh GIMBE report on Italy's NHS presented in Rome. Compared to 2022, in 2023 ISTAT data showed an increase in total health spending (+4.2million euros) which was exclusively sustained by households as a direct expense (3.8 million) or through health funds or insurance (553 million), given the substantial stability of public expenditure. "People are forced to pay for a growing number of health treatments", said GIMBE President Nino Cartabellotta, noting the situation is "getting constantly worse".
    'Out-of-pocket' spending, or treatment paid directly by citizens, which in the 2023-2022 period had registered an average annual increase of 1.6% (+5.3 million euros in 10 years), went up by 10.3%% (+3.8 million) in just one year in 2023, said the report.