Healthcare: funds dropped to 6.3% of GDP, the lowest since 2007

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The financial distress of Italian public healthcare has forcefully returned to the center of the news in recent days. After the latest report from the Court of Auditors to Parliament, which, as reported in the Sole 24 Ore last Tuesday, lined up the data from which emerges a national health fund more than halved compared to the German one and just over half in comparison with France, and the appeal signed by 14 scientists in the name of “saving public health”, the issue has triggered a heated political controversy between the Government, which with Prime Minister Meloni claims “the record figure of 134 billion” of this year’s health fund, and the opposition, which claims the exact opposite, complaining about the “continuous cuts” to the sector.

A structural issue

All this is happening on the eve of an economic and financial document that will not have the tools to give an answer: also because the question is structural, and goes far beyond the asphyxiated spaces of daily politics and the debate that accompanies it. And with its dimensions it surpasses the individual responsibilities of this or that Government, to embrace an entire political and technical season marked by Executives with a short or very short average lifespan; a season in which deviations, varied early retirements and bonuses dominated by the “Super” one have hung the public accounts in an ever-increasing noose of rigid spending that strangles discretionary spending, such as that to be dedicated to healthcare, school and so on.

As always, the numbers offer a clear path in the chaos of controversies more or less affected by political or economic contingency. First: it is true that in absolute terms, public funding for healthcare has grown with the budget, which despite the asphyxiation of the accounts has put 3 billion on the table for this year, 4 for next year and 4.2 from 2026; with the consequence that the meter shows values ​​even higher than those indicated by Meloni, and probably taken from the latest Agenas report, and is close to 136 billion this year to exceed 140 billion from next year.

THE DYNAMICS OF EXPENSES

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It is equally certain, however, that in public finance nominal values ​​matter up to a certain point, especially in the aftermath of the most serious inflation shock in recent decades, and that’s exactly why the most relevant parameter is in the relationship with GDP: as happens with the debt, which at the end of 2023 was worth 289.3 billion more than in 2020, however weighing on the gross domestic product 17.6 points less compared to the year of the pandemic crisis (137.3% against 154.9% ).

The relationship with the Gross Domestic Product

Here the picture becomes complicated, especially after the latest calculations by Istat which on March 1st revised the size of the Italian GDP upwards. Updating the 2023 NaDef data in light of the maneuver and Istat recounts, this year’s healthcare financing stands at 6.27% of GDP, a level substantially replicated next year before a further reduction to 6.20% in 2026. These are the lowest levels since 2007.