More than three million Italians - or
seven per cent of the total - renounce medical treatment on
grounds it is too expensive, the National Federation of Doctors'
Associations (FNOMCEO) said on Tuesday.
In addition, 21% of Italians save money for healthcare services
while 23% "dramatically fails to save money to meet healthcare
costs", said FNOMCEO President Filippo Anelli in his report for
'The 45th anniversary of the National Health Service, an Italian
excellence'.
Meanwhile, private spending on healthcare now exceeds 40 billion
euro and 17% of the population has medical insurance, Anelli
added.
In terms of the quality of healthcare, "a large section of the
Italian population, 41%, believes that it has deteriorated in
recent years," continued the president, stressing that for most
Italians the decline is attributable to lack of medical and
healthcare personnel (55%); inadequate structures and
instruments (42%); inadequate funding (42%); and disorganisation
(38%).
"The judgement on the management of healthcare is clear: a large
majority of Italians, 69%, believe that today's healthcare
responds more to budgetary needs than to health needs," said
Anelli.
In terms of access, 79% of people living in southern and island
regions "feel the problem of healthcare migration strongly,
while the majority of citizens, 61% evenly distributed across
the country, would like excellence to be brought to where people
live", he added.
In recent decades the regions, which have responsibility for
administering health care, have "failed to bridge these
differences", Anelli said.
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