The definitive yes to the differentiated autonomy reform – expected in the Chamber in a few weeks – could lead to negative effects on local healthcare. Until today the Calabria received, through the so-called Equalization Fund to ensure essential levels of assistance, 42 percent of the resources made available by the other Regions to organize their healthcare in the area. The most “generous” areas towards Calabria are Lombardy, Lazio, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Veneto.
What's new, but not even so new, is that with financial autonomy there is a real risk of canceling 42 percent of the funding given so far to support the Calabrian healthcare system. With a sector that is already floundering, under commissionership for over 10 years, between staff shortages and structures that are not up to date, the risk of a default is really just around the corner. A study recently conducted by Anci Campania recalls how the 2023 budget law provides that the financing system of the regions with ordinary statute “will have to change by 2027 with the overcoming of the system of tax transfers and equalization based on historical expenditure”. It is, in essence, a system that allows Calabria to receive 42 percent of its standard health needs in equalization (this is the highest figure in the country) which guarantees the right to health of over 1.8 million inhabitants.
Anci Campania has calculated how all the realities of the Centre-South are very dependent on the equalization contribution, thus warning against the possible risks deriving from the complete overcoming of this solidarity principle. Suffice it to say, by way of example, that in 2023 Calabria received approximately 3.8 billion from the National Health Fund to guarantee the Lea, a part of these resources comes from the Region's own revenues and taxes (Irap and additional Irpef) for approximately 6.6 percent.
Read the complete article in the paper edition of Gazzetta del Sud – Calabria