Italy 2001. HiT summary

The Italian health care system has undergone profound changes since the establishment of the NHS model in 1978. The 1990s reforms involved a process of decentralization of the NHS, both by devolving political and fi nancial authority to the regions and by delegating considerable managerial autonomy to lower-level purchaser and provider organizations. Although these reforms have yielded some positive results, citizen satisfaction with the health care system remained under the EU average in the late 1990s which suggests that there are still areas for improvement.