The Italian National Health Service

Universalism, Marketization and the Fading of Territorialization

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12067973
AutoresLavinia Bifulco (0000-0001-9379-1021, University of Milan Bicocca, Milan, Italy, autor de correspondencia), Stefano Neri (0000-0002-7866-4734, University of Milan, Milan, Italy)
Año2022
Volumen51
Número2
Páginas192-206
Fecha de publicación2022-02-09
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaForum for Social Economics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0736-0932 • E-ISSN: 1874-6381
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07360932.2022.2036625
OpenAlexW4210946348
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas18

At the time of its inception, in 1978, prevention and primary care were set as fundamental pillars of the Italian National Health Service (NHS), emphasizing the collective and social dimension of health. These principles were progressively neglected over the following four decades. Marketization, managed competition and managerialization privileged the individualized, highly specialized healthcare services mainly provided in hospitals, to the detriment of local outpatient and primary care services. After 2008–09, austerity policies exacerbated this situation determining under-financing as well as structural and staff shortages, while increasing tensions arose between the central government and Regions in the decentralized NHS. In 2020–21, the pandemic highlighted these critical issues. The need to develop a universal and strong outpatient, primary and community care system became evident in order to ensure the appropriateness and quality of foundational health services. This requires the State to play a more prominent role in the NHS governance

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