Regions in unison: funding is not enough to guarantee healthcare. Doctors ready to take to the streets

The regions have unanimously rejected the budget: for the governors meeting at the Conference of Regions, the total increase of 3.4 billion is not enough to guarantee healthcare and services for Italians. The response from Fratelli d’Italia group leader Lucio Malan was immediate, as he emphasised that resources are not infinite but are “by definition limited”, Meanwhile, doctors are preparing to take action in early December, with the aim of involving nurses as well, all united in the same mission: to defend the National Health Service.

A “correction during the parliamentary process” is needed to “channel all available financial resources towards a further increase” in the national health fund. This is stated in a note from the Conference of Regions following the extraordinary meeting at which the governors unanimously criticised the budget. The Conference of Regions, the statement says, “recognises the importance of the allocation, which will bring the Fund to 146.3 billion by 2027, marking an increase of over 3.5”. However, this increase “fails to offset actual healthcare expenditure, which is growing at an exponential rate due to inflation, higher costs linked to contract renewals and rising energy costs”. “No one intends to deny the reality: healthcare funding has increased during these years of the Meloni government. The problem, if anything, is that expenditure is outpacing funding, and with this budget manoeuvre we risk no longer being able to guarantee coverage of the Essential Healthcare Services (LEA)”, explains the Conference’s president, Massimiliano Fedriga.

“The regions are already struggling to provide the services they are currently funding from their own resources in 2026, and looking ahead, with the impact of inflation and soaring costs, we are facing a scenario of mounting debt.” For this reason, the regions are calling for “a corrective measure during the parliamentary process for the Budget Bill: any resources that become available must be channelled into this area. Healthcare is an inviolable right and the public service deserves unconditional support”.

Although criticism of the budget measures has come from all the regions – including those led by the centre-right – the ruling coalition, and in particular Fratelli d’Italia, responded immediately following the governors’ statement, with group leader Luciano Malan stating that the measures affecting healthcare “are not cuts: what is called ‘cuts’ is the failure to provide a further increase, but there are no cuts; cuts were made, but they were in the past”. “Let’s see,” Malan added, “and then it’s also a question of how this money is spent; in other words, it’s not just about the allocation, but also about how it is spent. Clearly, it would be wonderful to have infinite resources, but resources are, by definition, limited.”

Meanwhile, the public healthcare sector is in uproar over the budget measures: at a meeting of the Intersindacale – which brings together the main trade union bodies representing doctors, healthcare managers and vets – an initial consensus emerged at the end of the meeting on the possibility of a national protest – in early December – against a budget ‘that does not convince us’. The demonstration, which is very likely to take place in Rome, aims to involve “all stakeholders in the healthcare sector, in defence of our National Health Service, with the participation of all trade union organisations”. To this end, there will also be meetings with the nurses’ unions