Regionalizing Health Systems Public and Private Mix: The Situation in Italy

The process of regionalisation that Italy has undergone last 15 years has entailed considerable changes in the health policy to adjust the alteration of title V in the Constitution whereby health is delegated to the Regions. Applied differently from region to region, these modifications have been grouped for theoretical purposes into three main models of regional health management which we here summarise in reference to three case studies. Three regional health systems (Lombardy, Emilia‐Romagna and Calabria) are included in this paper. They each belong to one of the three reference models mentioned, according to certain variables (public and private health budget, healthcare supply and demand at a GP and specialist level, and so on). Our aim is to ascertain whether these distinctions hold good in practice as well as theory. The basis for comparing the three regions and seeing how they differ in functioning is the public and private resources employed and generated.