Health, the Court of Auditors: “Budgets in sharp deterioration, 14 regions in the red”

The budgets of the Regions for Health are “significantly worsening”, with a growing red that reached 1.4 billion in 2022. This is what emerges from the 2023 Report on the coordination of public finance of the Court of Auditors. “The result financial year, measured as the difference between the revenue forecast by the State to cover the LEAs and the expenses incurred for health care, shows a marked worsening.Losses grow, going from the 1,025 million deficit in 2021 to just under 1,470 million (there were 800 million in 2020),” he explains.

As explained in the report, two phenomena in particular affect the interpretation of the year’s results: the consideration in the income of the deficit plans borne by the medical device manufacturers for the four-year period 2015-2018 and the methods for recognizing healthcare mobility . «The worsening of the results concerns both the regions in the Plan and those not in the Plan. The change is more marked in the former which see losses grow (before further coverage) from 115 million to over 410 million. The other regions recorded more limited growth during the year, but at higher absolute levels (from 910 million in 2021 to 1,060 million)», explains the Accounting Judiciary.

«The worsening of the accounts is mainly attributable to the ordinary statute regions of the North, which go from a surplus of 40 million in 2021 to a deficit of around 178 million: a trend essentially due to Piedmont, Liguria and Emilia, which have a deficit of 186 million. The deficit of the central regions grows by 150 million: the result of Tuscany is improving, while Lazio shows the most marked deterioration». On the other hand, it is the southern regions that present “overall the best result”. «However – it is specified – the result of different trends: the result of Calabria due, however, to the improvement of the mobility balance connected to the block of assistance outside the region in 2020, compensates for the losses attributable to Molise and Puglia. The losses of the regions with special status in the North are up by 7 percent. However, it is those in the South that go from 179 million in 2021 to 376.2 million in 2022 that present the most significant change, a deterioration essentially attributable to the result of the Sicily region”.