Just like anything else, the health care system here in Italy has its good points and bad points. I, personally, have never had any problems with it. In fact, I received excellent care when my son was born.
Yes, the hospitals aren’t ultra-modern looking and prettily painted, but then again, I don’t have to pay ridiculously high insurance premiums only to turn around and pay a hospital bill later.
In my opinion the health care system in the US needs a complete overhaul and it’s about time that everyone has the right to proper health care. It should not be “big business”, but it is. Just look at all the prescription drug advertisements.
But, let me stop myself before I climb all the way up to the top of that soapbox….
Here in Italy, one of the “opportunities” that the health system has is that, unfortunately, it is a bit bogged down by paperwork and the patient has to do a lot of the leg work - picking up test results, carrying them back to the doctor, etc.
With that in mind, you may be able to imagine what happens next. You see, our doctor here in town is retiring which means that everyone has to change doctors. Now, you would think that she could just turn her records over to the new doctor and that would be it. Oh no, that’s too simple.
Instead, every person in town has to go to the Health Office and register for the new doctor. To make it “easier” (note quotations), a representative from the Health Office was scheduled to be here in town last week on Tuesday and Saturday and then every Tuesday for the rest of the month. Otherwise, people can go to the main office to do the paperwork.
For some reason, this caused a lot of consternation and people were concerned about being the first ones to get signed up. Needless to say, I haven’t signed up yet because I don’t relish the thought of standing in line for hours. From what I understand, they need to make 4 copies of each of our documents (ID card and health card), then fill out another form, etc. All in all, it’s a very time consuming process.
I heard through the grapevine that one man went on Tuesday morning at 5 am (it opened at eight) and there were already 4 people ahead of him in line. We considered going on Saturday, but when O drove by that morning and there was already crowd, so we’ll be waiting until later. Maybe I’ll wait until the last Tuesday in June….
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It strikes me that the patients are creating this situation. I would never have thought of going hours early! It happens when it happens, after all.
I am perfectly willing to walk my results and docs around to make it possible to pay what I do for health care. I’d like appointments, but manage without them. I’m very satisfied with my care. I’ve friends who have complained they were given incorrect information to discourage them from seeking advanced treatment, but so far every single one of them has managed to get the advanced care at no cost, so how valid was the complaint? (Yes, she had to go to Milano for the op, but the Doc is the one who invented it!)
PS: our hospital is new, state of the art. We don’t seem to have the same level of incompetence here.
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Mary Reply:
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:19 am
Can you believe showing up so early? I see people waiting in line here for the doctor too. She opens at 8 am and people start standing in line at 7. So, yes, I definitely think that’s creating the situation.
Like you, I think it would be nice to have appointments, but can manage without them and I don’t mind walking my results around. In fact, the nice part about that is that I have all of my test results here in a file in my house.
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Are the patients worried that they won’t be able to sign up with the doctor they want? There are limits (at least here) to the number of patients a pediatrician can have, maybe there are limits for the GPs (I have know idea what they’re called) as well? Still, showing up more than three hours before the office opens seems a bit exaggerated to me. It’s like they’re buying concert tickets.
I think you’re smart to wait!
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Mary Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Yes, there is a limit, but the number of people in town fall well within the limit. I’ll probably cruise by when I take Luigi for a walk on Tuesday, but if it’s crowded I’ll wait ’till the following week.
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My dual citizenship and the access to healthcare that it gave us are the big reasons that we are living in Italy. Over $900 a month for premimums plus co-pays in the states meant that I essentially worked for nothing but our healthcare. I have few complaints about the care we have received here in Monte San Savino. Our primary care doctor is a hoot. Other than shaking hands, in 18 months he has only touched my husband one time and me not at all. But he will give us what ever presecriptions we want or send us off to specialists with no argument. We love Italian healthcare.
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Mary Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Did you know that the WHO rated the Italian health care system as #2 behind the French? It has it’s opportunities, but I haven’t had a problem yet (knock wood).
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Wow that is crazy getting there so early. Are these pensioners who have little else to do?
I don’t really think it’s fair to compare the US healthcare system with the Italian one. The US healthcare system is completely unique in the world (like so many things in the US IMO) in the sense that the US is the only rich country which doesn’t provide universal healthcare (which I think is terrible FWIW – I agree that the US system really needs to be reformed).
I always compare the Italian system with the Australian system since the Australian system is also public and, unfortunately, the Italian system comes up short. The Italian systems is way more expensive than in Australia yet the hospitals are dirty, old and lack basic amenities (toilet paper, soap, air conditioning, nursing staff etc.). I always have to pay a ‘ticket’ often quite a large amount (90 euro etc) and during pregnancy I paid almost a thousand euro for all my prenatal testing in the public system (which involved tons of waiting around and running around – maybe I should have paid a bit more and gone private?).
All this runniing around is not a product of public healthcare – it’s a product of Italian culture which does not value efficiency or the patient’s time. In australia my doctor always emailed my results to me and or my GP and everything was available online. The healthcare bureaucracy in Australia puts the Italian one to shame – efficient and pollite.
Oh and for some reason, at least here in Rome, many nurses are really nasty to patients for no apparent reason. I was amazed at how awful some of the nurses were at the hospital where I gave birth. It makes me sad to think that people would be nasty, also, to, say, cancer patients (I hope it was just a ‘being nasty to the new mothers’ thing but I’m not sure – maybe they’re also mean to seriously ill people – it wouldn’t surprise me).
Lately I’ve been trying to get various specialist appointments (severe back problems) and have been told I’ll have to wait months. In the end, I just went private as it’s pretty much my only option. This seems to happen a lot here.
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Mary Reply:
June 10th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Paperwork is definitely something that the Italian system can improve on. The nastiness though isn’t everywhere. I didn’t have any problems with it, but I’ve heard others who have. But then, I’ve heard about some pretty nasty nurses in the US too. I think it depends on where you go.
I can’t comment on Australian health care, it sounds like it works well. My only comparison is the American system which is horrible…
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