Healthcare in Italy

Healthcare budget

In 2010, the Nation Health Service (SSN) spent Euro 111.2 billion (Euro 86.2 billion in public expenditure and Euro 25.0 billion in private expenditure). This represents 0.9% increase over prior year, which is lower than the increase recorded in 2009 (2.9%) and lower than the GDP increase in 2010 (1.2%). Therefore, the portion of GDP absorbed by the SSN in 2010 was slightly lower than in 2009 (7.1% and 7.2%, respectively) and much lower than in 2007 (8.7% of GDP).

The average per-capita healthcare expenditure in Italy in 2010 is Euro 1.833 and goes from Euro 2.191 in the northern autonomous province of Bolzano to 1.690 in the southern region of Sicily.

In Italy, the total health spending grew, in real terms, by an average of 1.9% per year between 2000 and 2009, and this growth rate slowed down slightly to 1.5% in 2010. In France it slowed down to 1.3% and in the United Kingdom to 0.2%.

79.6% of the total healthcare spending in Italy was funded by public sources, above the average of 72.2% in OECD countries. The reminder 20.4% is made of “out-of-pocket payments” (16%) and “voluntary health insurance” (4.4%).



In 2010, the National Health Service has a deficit of Euro 2.3 billion with a remarkable decrease from 3.2 billion in 2009 (-28.5%) thanks to cost containment policies implemented by all regions, taking this deficit down to 0.15% of the GDP from 0.21% a year before.

However, the regional healthcare deficit is higher in the regions of the Center-South, and four regions (Lazio, Campania, Puglia and Sardinia) made 90% of the overall deficit in 2010. The highest per-capita deficit is, again, in Lazio, followed by Molise, Campania, Sardinia, Valle d’Aosta and Calabria.