Economic growth and health progress in Italy: 30 years of National Health Service.

On December 23 of 1978, during first Italian recession since the end of World War II, Parliament voted for Law 833 that gives birth to the Italian National Public Health Services (SSN) as the new and alternative model of health care system. It was the beginning of the match of Italian health care with the world class level of the public health care. Each crisis requires solidarity and actions. Maintaining levels of health and other social expenditures is critical to protect life and livelihood and to boost productivity. The purpose of the present study is to establish an alternative point of view to demonstrate that Gross Domestic Product, is a function of health care expenditure. The chronology of the events was created by using the laws published on "Gazzetta Ufficiale" (GU). In order to analyze the corporate effectiveness and efficiency, we have divided the SSN into its three main components, namely resources (input), services (output) and performances (outcome). Health services have certainly been pioneers and are still today standard-bearers of a challenge which has borne its fruits. According to the "Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development", SSN ranks second in the world classification of the return on the health care services in 2000. The World Health Organization has published in 2005 the same result: SSN ranks second in the world for ability and quality of the health care in relationship to the resources invested The continuous reforms of health care system introduced stability to the Italian system more than others countries. Success of SSN function rooted in the ability of system to adapt assuring mechanism of positive feed-back correction. In the future SSN, will required new set of reforms, such as redefinition of structures and mechanisms of governance, strategic plans, clinical administrations.

Hospital bodies: the genesis of Italian National Health Service.

Hospital public bodies were instituted in Italy in 1968. Their creation represents a fundamental step forward in the evolution of the national healthcare system and has allowed improvements in social equity in hospitals. The lack of independent funding beyond the insurance-type healthcare system existing at the time, hindered its success. The hospital body has however left a trace in the modern national healthcare system with the introduction of the hospital corporation.

Health authority: the Italian experience.

The healthcare reform, introduced in Italy in 1992, has completely changed the structure of the national healthcare system (NHS) , including the introduction of the concept of "business firm" applied to public health service providers. The aim of this study was to outline the history of healthcare "firms" (azienda sanitaria) and evaluate the impact of this change on the NHS in terms of health expenditure, and corporate effectiveness and efficiency. Self regulation and correction are the abilities to which the success of healthcare companies can be attributed. The benefits of creating healthcare firms include preventing those problems associated with healthcare models based on the principles of the private insurance type model and preferring instead a cost-effectiveness approach.