(ANSA) – ROME, APRIL 18 – “The health expenditure/GDP ratio in 2023 falls to 6.7% compared to 6.9% in 2022″ and will continue to fall in the years to come, so much so that “it will be 6.2% % in 2026, a lower value than in 2019 (6.4%)”. This is the analysis of the Gimbe Foundation, with respect to the forecasts of the 2023 Economic and Financial Document, which “on health expenditure 2024-2026 certify clear signs of definancing” for the National Health Service, “whose fundamental principles of universality, equality and fairness are undermined by critical issues that compromise the right to health protection”.
In the document approved by the Council of Ministers, reads the Gimbe analysis, “compared to the three-year period 2024-2026, against an average annual growth of nominal GDP of 3.6%, the Def 2023 estimates that of health expenditure at 0 .6%.The health expenditure/GDP ratio decreased from 6.7% in 2023 to 6.3% in 2024 to 6.2% in 2025-2026. Compared to 2023, in absolute terms health expenditure in 2024 fell to 132.7 billion (-2.4%), to then rise again in 2025 to 135 billion (+1.7%) and to 138.3 billion (+2.5%) in 2026″.
In practice, Cartabellotta clarifies, “the laughable average increase in health care expenditure of 0.6% in 2024-2026 – explains di Nino Cartabellotta, president of Gimbe – will not even cover the price increase”. In other words, “the forecasts of the Def 2023 on health expenditure over the three-year period certify clear signs of definancing: in particular, 2024, far from being the year of recovery, shows a -2.4%”.
The numbers “confirm that, in line with what has happened in the last 15 years, public health is not a political priority”. On the contrary, “the strategy of public definancing of healthcare is continuing”, which translates into “endless waiting lists that increase out-of-pocket spending and impoverish families” as well as “inequalities in the supply of services and services that determine healthcare migration, inaccessibility to innovations, up to the reduction of life expectancy”.
(ANSA).
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