Juliette Gagliardi
Junior Researcher
Private health insurance in Italy - statistics & facts
Italy’s health care service (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale -SSN) is publicly funded and guarantees health care to all citizens using the Italian National Service card, provided free of charge to all having the right to access the Italian SSN. In recent years, the share of people combining the use of the Italian SSN and private care, paying out-of-pocket or accessing it through supplementary health insurance, has increased. As a matter of fact, private health expenditure in Italy grew from 34.2 billion euros in 2012 to 41 million in 2021. This increase is connected to the Italian SSN struggling to satisfy the needs of its aging population, with increasingly long waiting lists that do not allow it to deliver proper care. Nevertheless, Italy is still among the European countries with the lowest private health insurance penetration, with 0.19 percent in 2020.
Health insurance companies
In 2021, almost ten percent of the private health expenditure in Italy was funded by health insurance, while the remaining was out-of-pocket spending. In 2022, the sickness insurance company with the highest market share was Generali Italia, with 16.4 percent, followed by Unisalute and Intesa Sanpaolo RBM Salute, with 15.02 and 14.04 percent, respectively. During the same year, the gross written premiums from sickness insurance companies amounted to 3.7 billion euros, with Generali Italia totaling over 607 million euros. Despite the presence of several insurance companies in Italy, the health insurance market is quite concentrated, as over 45 percent of the market share is divided among only three health insurance companies.
Health insurance companies
In 2021, almost ten percent of the private health expenditure in Italy was funded by health insurance, while the remaining was out-of-pocket spending. In 2022, the sickness insurance company with the highest market share was Generali Italia, with 16.4 percent, followed by Unisalute and Intesa Sanpaolo RBM Salute, with 15.02 and 14.04 percent, respectively. During the same year, the gross written premiums from sickness insurance companies amounted to 3.7 billion euros, with Generali Italia totaling over 607 million euros. Despite the presence of several insurance companies in Italy, the health insurance market is quite concentrated, as over 45 percent of the market share is divided among only three health insurance companies.
Demographics
Among people undergoing private healthcare spending, acutely ill individuals and people aged between 31 and 60 years were the ones with higher spending funded by supplementary healthcare insurance. However, considering the group of people with supplementary medical insurance, healthy or mildly ill people accounted for more than half the people paying for private health insurance in Italy. In 2019, individuals with an income below 15 thousand did not opt for any supplementary healthcare insurance, while above this threshold, the higher the income the higher the share of people covered by supplementary healthcare insurance.
