Plan B

Have you tried using the option to access Sanità Km 0 via a CIE (electronic ID) (assuming you have both such an ID card and a smart phone)? I find it swift and straightforward.
I started logging into Sanità Km 0 via the SPID system but gave up because the whole SPID-thing is SUCH a pain in the ****.

Geordieborn

Interesting. Seems the UK varies as much as Italy! We get 3 months supply on repeat, ordered online and delivered to your door here in Yorkshire.

Lorna at Vicenza

My ID card is still the paper one. I only need really need a tube of eczema cream now and again so using the computer or the call centre to get a prescription isn't really a problem. The chemist just sold it to me over the counter last time anyway. The SPID which laughably was supposedly designed to make access to all public websites and our lives easier has really pissed off so many people.

GeorgeYoung

I used to text my GP asking for an appointment and he would usually reply within an hour. He had 3 surgeries a week in the village, 1 of which was a walk-in one. It was incredibly simple to get an appointment and made such a difference from our UK GP where it was so difficult you would often see queues of elderly people lining up outside the surgery in their desperation to see a doctor when the place opened at 08:30.

In addition, the electronic prescription system meant that any prescription issued was allocated to your tessera sanitaria and so you could go to any pharmacy and collect your prescription, assuming it was in stock. Most prescriptions were charged but in my experience only €1 or €2. Not sure what the highest amount might be.

Having said all that, many aspects of the Italian healthcare system are managed regionally so I imagine experiences may vary considerably across the country.

philat98

You must have needed some very cheap medicine. My dog was ill last year and the four prescriptions (mainly antibiotics) cost €200. Even a box of Ibuprofen is around €7.

GeorgeYoung

My memory may be failing me or I may have just been lucky. Not sure how relevant vet bills are for human prescriptions though?

I agree that paracaetomol etc. was far more expensive but I don't remember prescribed medicines being that dear. I guess it varies by pill though.

Lorna at Vicenza

There is no fixed prescription price here so you pay the price of the medicine which can vary greatly. During Covid I ran out of the 89p allergy tablets I buy in the UK and the cheapest, generic brand here was about €3.75. I was recently prescribed something called Feed Colon and bloody hell, it cost me about €22 which is possibly the most expensive thing I've been prescribed............and it doesn't seem to be making any difference to my life at all so I don't think I'll be buying a second box of it.

C.2s

[QUOTE=Lorna at Vicenza;13134387]There is no fixed prescription price here so you pay the price of the medicine which can vary greatly. During Covid I ran out of the 89p allergy tablets I buy in the UK and the cheapest, generic brand here was about €3.75. /QUOTE]

The Italian pharmaceutical industry is very influential and so successive governments have restricted the number of generic versions of medicines. It's particularly evident when comparing the price of things like ibuprofen and paracetamol. We always stock up in the UK or get family to bring some with them. So in that sense the Italian system is worse.

​​​​​​But on the other hand medicines for chronic illness or for long term reduction/prevention of risk can be free on prescription if you are enrolled in the national health system. There's no prescription charge like there is the UK. I think that the justification is that if people don't take medicine because of the cost and then end up in hospital it'll be more expensive for the state in the long run.
Seems to me to be a pretty sensible approach. Better than the UK.​​​​​
Or a doctor can give a private prescription which you do pay for. So for example the high cholesterol and high blood pressure tablets I have to take are normally free. But recently because of a dispute about my healthcare status I have had to pay...yet even then the price was cheaper than the cost of prescription charges in the UK.

pugliese

For over the counter meds I use an online chemist. I found Saninforma to be the cheapest for paracetamol at

30 tabs Paracetamolo 500 mg Nova Argentia quantità 4 € 1.80 totale € 4.40

fenman

Hi if prescription for chronic issues are free do you know if this would be the case for a foreigners who has just become resident and bought into the healthcare and / or just purchased a health insurance?

C.2s

I think (I'm not 100% certain) that the answer is in your question. If you "buy in" you are part of the system and get the benefits immediately, whereas if you buy health insurance you have "opted out" of the system, and I guess in that case you would then pay for private prescriptions

fenman

Diabetic man, 27, died after GPs ‘failed to investigate rapidly deteriorating health’ (msn.com)

this is the sort of issue with GPs in the uk nowdays.
they will just not see people face to face, they have a very powerful union that protects them.

philat98

Where I live the news reports somebody colpito da malore almost everyday. I dont think anyone investigates.

Geordieborn

All of the UK - no... Face-toface here is no problem...

modicasa

Prescriptions for chronic issues are free, but if you are new resident or not entitled - then obviously your insurance covers that cost, which means you must declare any underlying ongoing and chronic ailments to the insurance company when you get your cover. If you dont then the health insurers wont pay out a penny.