One of the first issues put on the table by the new government, as explained by the new Minister of Health, Renato Balduzzi, will be that of remodulating health care tickets by following criteria of greater equity, such as the recognition of family income and the number of children. Currently, the new tickets introduced with the 2011 maneuver (10 euros for specialist visits and diagnostics and 25 euros for white codes in the emergency room) are applied in all Regions, in different ways, except Valle d'Aosta and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano , while in the province of Trento only the one on first aid is applied for non-urgent services. Several regions that already at the end of July triggered the tickets regularly: Lazio, Liguria, Calabria, Puglia, Sicily and Basilicata (the only one that had not activated the 25 euros for the white codes). For Sardinians, on the other hand, the additional ticket is only a symbolic contribution of one euro, spread over all patients, while for the Emergency Department, payment of 25 euros is required for white codes and 15 euros for green codes. Abruzzo modulates according to income, with an additional fixed fee of 10 euros per prescription for specialist outpatients, but only for families with incomes exceeding 36 thousand 151 euros per year. Tuscany, Umbria and Emilia Romagna have jointly presented a plan for the remodulation of co-payments by income bracket for both medicines and specialist services. In Lombardy, on the other hand, ticket reformulations have been in force since 1 August based on the value of the services: no tickets for services under 5 euros, and above 5 euros, the additional cost will not be fixed, but equal to 30% of the value of the recipe. The 10 euro health ticket is active in the Marche. The announced objective was to remodulate the ticket based on gross family income brackets, but the previous government's approval did not arrive. Piedmont has decided to modulate the contribution of citizens by keeping the cost of the lowest tickets unchanged and making the highest ones grow proportionally. Since the beginning of August, Veneto has been applying the new tickets modulated on two income brackets. Five euros for families with incomes up to 29,000 euros, 10 euros for those exceeding this threshold. Finally, in Friuli Venezia Giulia there is a 10 euro ticket for diagnostics and a 25 euro ticket for white codes. Time is running out for the remodulation, between December and January the Regions will have to find an agreement or, for 2012, the allocation of the Fund formulated by former minister Fazio will apply.
November 28, 2011 – DoctorNews
