Health deficit, 9 billion and the shadow of the commissioners – New resources in Sicily, Molise, Lazio and Campania THE CONDITIONS The loan to recover from the deficit will have to be repaid in 30 years – "Ad acta" intervention for those who do not respect the envisaged plan PHARMACEUTICAL ASSISTANCE The burden on the NHS cannot exceed 14.4% of total expenditure (2% for hospitals). An annual budget is foreseen for the industries
The Government uses the stick and the carrot with the Regions that have health accounts in the red: they will receive a maxi loan from the State of up to 9.1 billion to be repaid in a maximum of 30 years, but if the recovery plans turn out to be out of order they will risk the arrival of ad acta government commissioners was also very soon. The 2008 Budget grants the NHS a record endowment of 100.6 billion (+3.5 billion on 2007) and reserves a considerable increase of 3 billion for investments in healthcare construction. And immediately, with the decree law passed yesterday, he puts the pharmaceutical reform: spending ceiling at 14.4%, annual budgets for companies, overruns paid entirely by industries, pharmacists and wholesalers, no more price cuts.Once the hypothesis of new tickets has been thwarted, Healthcare confirms itself at the center of public finance interventions also in terms of overall governance of the NHS. Also because the Minister of Health, Livia Turcoreceived a promise yesterday: his bill for the "modernization" of the NHS will be "linked" to the manoeuvre. It will be a far-reaching reform: from the mechanisms for hiring and appointing managers inspired by the (promised) maximum transparency up to the organization of structures and the creation of a national quality evaluation system for structures and services. But among the measures connected to the manoeuvre, there will be another decisive element: the delegation, developed with Paul Ferrero (Social Solidarity), for the creation of the Fund for non-self-sufficiency, which will be inspired by the Isee with the participation for the highest incomes (to be defined).
Regions in «red» under protection
The decree law announces the almost immediate arrival of the ad acta commissioners for five Regions with accounts in the red in 2005 if the non-compliance with the plans for recovery from the deficit and for financial and organizational recovery emerges from the discussions with the Government. A solution, this, which risks being close above all in Lazio, where for 2007 a lack of savings of around 300 million is looming. But for Lazio, Campania, Sicily and Molise (not for Abruzzo) the Bill of Finance, as provided for in the agreements, simultaneously opens the door to a loan of up to 9.1 billion, to be repaid in a maximum of 30 years, for the repayment of debts contracted in the past on the financial markets.
Drugs, you change
The reform is brought forward by decree. The expenditure ceiling of the territorial pharmaceuticals goes from 13 to 14.4%, but gross of tickets and direct distribution by local health authorities and hospitals. Any breakthrough will be paid for by industries, pharmacies and wholesalers, for their share: no more price cuts, in short, but direct and total pay back. Each industry will have an annual budget and, in essence, an NHS spending limit calculated by negotiation on the totality of products that holds the breakthrough in its portfolio will be reimbursed, consequently, on
