Italians spend more and more on private healthcare. This is what emerges from the CNEL Report on public services, which analyzed the situation of Italian healthcare spending. Citizens continue to increasingly turn to the private sector for treatment, mainly due to public inadequacies and long waiting lists for non-emergency interventions.
The Report also identified a chronic lack of staff, combined with the flight abroad of healthcare professionals, especially young people, in search of better remuneration. However, specialist visits are decreasing, a symptom of the fact that more and more Italians are giving up treatment.
Private healthcare is increasingly essential in Italy
The data from the CNEL Report on public services showed that the role of private healthcare in Italy is increasingly preponderant. Despite recent interventions to try to solve the problem of public waiting lists, Italians continue to turn more and more often to private facilities, especially for non-emergency interventions.
In the last year, spending grew by 2%, reaching 42.6 billion euros, approximately 25% of total national health spending. The trend has continued since 2015. Furthermore, in the last 10 years, national healthcare needs have grown by 24 billion euros with an average annual increase of 2%.
Italy remains slightly below the European average for the percentage of healthcare costs covered by the public. In our country the State pays 74% of the costs while in Europe the average is 77.3%. However, the Italian national healthcare system is universal, unlike others which are based on public insurance systems. It should therefore, in theory, have a much larger percentage of expenses covered than the European average.
Staff shortages in the public sector
The CNEL Report also highlighted how the healthcare system is suffering from a chronic lack of personnel. The shortage of nurses in particular exceeds the European average by more than 180 thousand units. The report reads:
More and more young professionals prefer to take the path abroad or in the private sector, an ‘escape’ which risks having an impact on the stability of the public system in the coming years, especially in the most fragile territories.
The data also shows the strong territorial differences resulting from the fact that healthcare is the responsibility of the Regions. CNEL notes:
Significant discrepancies continue to exist on a regional basis and also between sub-regional territories, both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view. The gaps affect the poor supply of services and infrastructural fragility in various areas of the country.
Italians who give up on treatment
The CNEL also noted a significant drop in specialist visits and tests. Between 2018 and 2023 the former fell by 1.7% while the latter by 2%. Data which is a symptom of the fact that many Italians are giving up on treatment, precisely because of the shortcomings of the national healthcare system and the high costs of the private sector.
In 2024, 10% of residents have given up on specialist visits or tests, due to the length of the waiting lists or the difficulty in covering the expenses. The report states:
This last data is particularly significant, as in 2024 23.9% of individuals (+4% compared to 2023) bore the entire cost of the last specialist service, without any reimbursement from insurance companies.
