scholarly journals Is Health Care demand rationed by income and other determinants? An empirical assessment for Italy

2009 ◽  
pp. 111-143
Author(s):  
Rossella Bardazzi
Keyword(s):  
Health Service ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Health Care Demand ◽  
Empirical Assessment ◽  
Italian National Health Service ◽  
Italian National Health ◽  
Potential Demand ◽  
Large Scale Survey

The Italian national health service was funded in 1978 with the goal of providing uniform and comprehensive care under the inspiration of the Republic's Constitution. It is important to assess to what extent the health service meets the potential demand of the population and if the socio-economic status of the patient - mainly income and education - may ration the access to healthcare. This paper offers an empirical assessment of the determinants of healthcare demand in Italy for a detailed range of services including diagnostic tests and hospital services, not often analyzed in the empirical literature. An econometric hurdle model is applied to individual microdata from a large-scale survey. From our results, some accessibility problems seem to arise for persons who have fewer alternatives in the private market - with lower income, less educated, not privately insured - and living in the Southern part of the country.

scholarly journals The medicalisation of politics or the politicisation of pedicine: the case of italian struggles to design public healthcare institutions

DAT Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-94
Author(s):  
Valeria Graziano ◽  
Maddalena Fragnito
Keyword(s):  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Healthcare Sector ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Design ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Italian National Health Service ◽  
History Of ◽  
Italian National Health ◽  
Key Aspects

In the present article, we reflect on some key aspects for the design of pub­lic health systems by retracing the history of the Italian National Health Service, or Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN), from its inception to the present days, analysing how a series of subsequent reforms and counter-reforms impacted its functions and services. Our reflection is based on a collective interview with Fulvio Aurora, Paolo Fierro and Edoardo Turri, three members of Medicina Democratica, which has been and continues to be one of the key organizations in the struggles for keeping health a public value in Italy. While our standpoint on the issue of health is geographically situated, we believe that an analysis of the Italian healthcare sector, with its success­es and its failures, can offer important points of departures for identifying some key characteristics to shape contemporary approaches to healthcare design that can be translocal and cosmopolitan in their application.

scholarly journals Auxological criteria for the diagnosis of GH-dependent short stature and prescription of rGH: problems and pitfalls

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 165-170
Author(s):  
Giulio Gilli ◽  
Lodovico Benso ◽  
Lorenzo Pradelli
Keyword(s):  
Growth Hormone ◽  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Short Stature ◽  
Recombinant Growth Hormone ◽  
Italian National Health Service ◽  
Italian National Health ◽  
Parental Height ◽  
Gh Deficit ◽  
Therapeutic Responses

Recombinant growth hormone (rGH) administration is a cornerstone in the treatment of short stature secondary to GH deficit. Since its introduction in the 80s, the population of short patients with an indication to rGH therapy has clearly broadened, probably because of increased awareness by patients and physicians. Since rGH therapy is demanding for patients and expensive, the Italian National Health Service, like other third payers and regulatory authorities, regulates its prescription according to criteria listed in the Nota AIFA 39. This paper illustrates pitfalls and difficulties paediatricians may encounter when assessing short stature patients in order to decide upon the opportunity and possibility to initiate rGH therapy through the exposition of four emblematic, though hypothetical, clinical histories. In the discussion, the Authors highlight some of the most critical points in the formulation of the Nota 39, among which are the lack of clear reference values, neglecting of parental height targets and therapeutic responses, as well as some omissions in methodology specifications.

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