Health funds, reform failed and now back to square one
The Senate Budget Committee rejected the Zullo amendment that contained the sector reform included in the Health Benefits Bill 1241. And now?
3' min read
3' min read
It was supposed to be the reform that changed the world of supplementary health funds. Instead, the Senate Budget Committee, on Tuesday 2 April, said no to the text of the Zullo amendment (named after the first signatory, a senator from Fdi) on which it was to give its opinion. The measure was included in Bill 1241 on health benefits and introduced a very detailed article (13a). Rejected at sender.
Two years of investigations
.The one contained in the Zullo amendment, was considered a real reform of the health fund system, which has important numbers: 324 supplementary forms, to which 16 million Italians are enrolled, providing EUR 3.2 billion in benefits in 2023. The reform came after two years of a fact-finding investigation by the Tenth Senate Committee on Labour and Health, chaired by Francesco Zaffini of Fdi: the supervisory authorities, the health funds themselves, and experts were heard. Many were the insights and insights contained in those documents on the state of health of integrative healthcare; among other things, the investigation also dealt with the world of complementary pensions.
The two key points
.There are two key points in the Zullo amendment: the increase in the tied resources "intended for services partially and/or totally excluded from the essential levels of care (Lea) to the extent of not less than 30% of the total amount of resources intended to cover all the services guaranteed to their patients, based on the contributions collected". The tied resources mainly concern three areas of services: dentistry, physiotherapy and non-self-sufficiency. At present, the minimum constraint is 20 per cent, but as documented in the latest Ministry of Health report, health funds have already reached and exceeded 30 per cent, averaging 33 per cent (and these resources amount to about EUR 1 billion).
Another key point of the amendment was to give the supplementary health funds the 'title to act to recover contributions omitted by the employer in the name and on behalf of the employee'. A role as debt collector that apparently would not have been much appreciated by the health funds.
Now what happens?
.We asked President Zaffini for a comment on the fate of the reform but he preferred not to comment. On the subject of the ageing workforce, Zaffini went on to state in a note the importance of 'the development of a true second pillar of supplementary healthcare, which is not only essential to preserve the constitutional right to health protection, but also necessary to make a strategic investment for the future of the country'.
