Italy

Country profile

The Italian Republic is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe with a population of over 60 million inhabitants making it the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world. Italy enjoys a very high standard of living, and has a high nominal GDP per capita. The country’s main economic sectors are tourism, fashion, engineering, chemicals, motor vehicles and food. Italy's northern regions are per capita amongst the richest in Europe.

Healthcare is provided to all citizens and residents by a mixed public-private system. The public part is the national health service (SSN = Servizio Sanitario Nazionale) which is organized under the Ministry of Health and it's administered on a regional basis.

Policy responses

In Italy health inequalities are mainly represented by differences in terms of health status (especially concerning non-EU immigrants and Roma population) rather than in terms of access to healthcare. Polices that do address health inequalities tend to do so implicitly whilst cross – sectoral collaboration remains low.

An overview of policy responses addressing health inequalities in can be found in our Policy Database.

Good practices

Key actors

Please find below an overview of key actors in Italy working on health inequality issues:

• Ministry of Health

Are you aware of any other key actors that should be added to this list? 
Please let us know!

Key resources

Please find below an overview of relevant documents addressing health inequality issues in Italy. Further publications can be found in our Publications Database.

• National Strategy Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion 2008 - 2010

• Health inequalities on the Italian agenda: the case of the National Prevention Plan. Presentation by Giuseppe Costa, Dept. Public Health, University of Turin (2007).
   

Are you aware of any other key resources that should be added to this list?
Please let us know!