a_grz_vr

The normal process is that you are effectively on your own, the insurance will refund expenditure incurred (within the limits and conditions of the policy). The normal idea of insurance is to cover you for unpredicted eventualities, which explains why pre-existing conditions tend to be excluded. Think about it, if you have a condition which will cost, say, €100 per month, the insurance knows it will have to reimburse you that money, so will logically charge it to you in the premium - plus their administration costs, profits etc.

Hi, thanks for the answers for each question. I need to reread everything properly, but I had a quick question that has a priority on everything else.
Just say I had this private health insurance, would I actually be able to go into a hospital (an SSN hospital) and get treatment? Would I be able to go to a doctor's surgery and ask the doctor to give me a prescription and then take that to a pharmacist?

As I've understood from your information, you the annual fee to the insurance company wouldn't help me pay the costs of the hospital or doctor's visit. For now, I'm not bothered by this. What I'm really trying to understand is if I would have any access at all to a doctor's surgery (and consequently, to my prescriptions/pharmacist), if I paid for annual insurance?

I'm trying to imagine the situation. I need to go to a doctor's for my prescription. Everyone else (who is enrolled in the SSN) goes to the doctor's with their tessera sanitaria (that is, their proof of their enrollment through Italian citizenship or a work contract if they are foreign). But in my case, all I would have is my private insurance. I think it would be a bit strange to go to a doctor's surgery with my private insurance contract in my hand as proof of me being able to see the doctor.

All of this is leading me into thinking that, with the private health insurance contract, I'm just ticking off the residency requirement.

Without assicurazione volontaria, without a job contract, I can't get into the SSN. If I have private health insurance, I am resident...but something tells me that I'm not going to be allowed to see a doctor for my prescriptions.

Though, I could have it wrong (and I HOPE I do, otherwise I might not have any access to my prescriptions in Italy).

a_grz_vr

Ah, you know what, I think the answer is obvious. And it's even written in some information I've started reading:
Il contratto di assicurazione sanitaria non dà diritto all’iscrizione al SSR.
(It's called SSR in Torino).
So I imagine I need to start looking for private doctors in the pagine bianche for some information. The SSN/SSR seems like a waste of time now.
THOUGH, I did find out some kind of reassuring, positive information this evening. In Torino, you can enrol in the SSR/SSN with any kind of work contract, the length is irrelevant:

lavoratori subordinati o autonomi nello Stato:
- iscrizione al SSR a tempo indeterminato se il rapporto di lavoro è a
tempo indeterminato, sia esso subordinato o autonomo99
- iscrizione al SSR per la durata del rapporto di lavoro se il rapporto
di lavoro è a tempo determinato, ivi compreso quello stagionale; in
particolare, per i soli lavoratori stagionali, l’iscrizione può essere effettuata
anche per periodi inferiori a 3 mesi.

Ah, in order to get hold of this PDF, I had to tell them in several ways that they were worthless ahahahah. I'd been getting rubbish replies from many people, and didn't have much patient left. Though it led to some kind of result

philat98

a_grz_vr

Hello,

I'm back after a while. Thank you once again to everyone for your answers, they've really helped me.
Whilst I've been away I've dealt with other issues relating to moving.

I made some progress concerning the health matter. I contacted a private health clinic in Milan and they've been so useful. Immediate, thorough and caring answers on their part, a real surprise. I made most communication through email as well. Just the fact they answered the emails in the first place was shocking ahahahah.

I'll summarise my discoveries, both for those who've answered my questions here (who may be interested to know what's happened in the meantime) and for those who may be searching for answers, just as I was.

- First of all, the private health clinic doesn't require any enrollment fee.
- You pay for your visits, the general doctor costing about 30 euros, the specialist (in my case, endocrinologist), about 60 euros.
- No official/court approved translations of clinical folders necessary, doctors who can speak English will view the documents.
- You don't necessarily need all of the clinical documents, but the more you have, the better.
- In order for me to obtain my clinical folder in the UK, I don't need to pay, I just need proof of address and proof of identity (bank statement for the former is acceptable, a colour certified copy of passport for the latter if you don't want to send the original passport in the post).
- It seems that my medicine will cost about 60 euros. Yes, a lot more expensive than what I pay here, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make in order to move there. If that's what it takes, so be it!

This all describes the private health care situation, and it could work for the beginning. It does show me however that I should push for a job with a contract when I'm there, seeing all the extra expenses not having one entails. The private system route can work at least temporarily. Yes...I will be starting soon a thread about work ahahahah.

That's all for now
Have a good evening!

a_grz_vr

Hello to everyone.

I have further updates about this.

First, if anyone takes medication, please find out whether it contains a controlled drug or not. IT'S VERY IMPORTANT.

I take testosterone, and I kind of just found out by accident that I needed to look into this. Luckily I did.

If you travel with a controlled drug, first you need a letter from your GP. If you want to travel with 3 month's of it, you need to send that letter to the drug and firearms licensing unit (part of GOV) who will send you a licence. It takes a minimum of 10 working days.

The risk of not doing this could result in something as serious as imprisonment.

I still have to see the doctor to get my letter; but yes I'm a bit pessimistic and I'm not even sure the doctor would have known anything about the letter, and would have just let me walk out of the door, without saying anything. Actually, one of my doctors didn't even know what my illness was. So no, I don't have a lot of faith in doctors ahaha. Actually, it was ME who diagnosed myself, ME who wanted to be referred to the specialist, and on top of that my family didn't believe me either (and some of my relatives still don't, despite me having had DNA and blood tests done, they don't even believe a DNA test...).
Anyway...

Be informed!!!

It's bad enough that someone has a health problem; then they could even make your life worse by sending you to prison for taking the medication you need.

This is how I found all of the information. If you use all of the links, you can read about everything in more detail:

I started on the GOV website:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/living-in-italy#healthcare

Right at the bottom they say:
"You should also check your prescriptions are legal in Italy".

Follow that link:

On this page, you can check the controlled drugs list. Look for the DRUG, not for the MEDICINE. In my case, TESTOSTERONE is the drug, the medicine is not on the list (in my case, TOSTRAN).

At the bottom of that link, a contact:
Drug and Firearms Licensing Unit
[email protected]

As I may have mentioned earlier, I contacted L'AGENZIA DEL FARMACO:
Centro Informazione Indipendente sul Farmaco - FarmaciLine | AIFA Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco
Who told me:
Il medicinale Tostran non autorizzato in Italia e dunque, dovendolo acquistare in Italia, dovrebbe essere importato secondo procedure che sono note alle aziende sanitarie Locali

For who doesn't speak Italian, it says that my medication (not drug) isn't authorised in Italy. I don't know if that means it's illegal or not, but from the DRUG AND FIREARMS link, there is a severe warning:
"You could get a fine or go to prison if you travel with medicine that’s illegal in another country - check with the embassy of the country you’re going to before you travel".

The DRUG AND FIREARMS unit told me I have to contact the Italian Embassy/Consolate (I don't know the difference, so I contacted both).

Surprise surprise, the Embassy responded almost immediately. I wasn't even expecting them to read my email, to be honest.

Go to this page:
Modulistica
Then ASSISTENZA SOCIALE,
DOC 2
You'll get a WORD document written in English and Italian.

I'm still doing research, but from what I've read it seems for now that I'll be fine as long as I have my GP letter and licence from the drug unit. My worry now is that the information is outdated ahahahah. I still don't understand if my "drug" is considered as a doping drug or not.

I'm going to ask a friend of mine to call the department that's listed in the WORD document (Ufficio Centrale Stupefacenti (U.C.S.) Ministero della Salute, Roma, Tel. 06 59941). Even though I can speak Italian I detest speaking it on the phone. When they hear how I can speak they start speaking so damn quickly!!! And this is stuff I need to understand at 100%, there can't be any misunderstandings.

That's all for now. I will also post this as an individual post, to help someone find it more easily if they're looking for information about healthcare in Italy.
Bye!