Healthcare poverty rising, 463,000 ask help with medicines

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 27 - Healthcare poverty is rising and some 463,000 Italians have asked for help with buying medicines this year, according to a report out Wednesday.
    Italians are increasingly struggling when it comes to buying medicines, said the report presented to the House.
    In 2024, 463 thousand people had to ask for help from healthcare facilities affiliated with the Banco Farmaceutico to receive free medicines and treatments that they otherwise would not have been able to afford.
    This is about 8% more than last year.
    According to the report, the burden of spending on medicines borne by Italian families is increasingly high: last year it increased by 731 million euros, going from 9.91 billion in 2022 to 10.65 billion in 2023.
    Overall, in 7 years (2017-2023), pharmaceutical spending borne by families has grown by 2.576 billion euros (+31.9%).
    Those who suffer the most are men (equal to 54% of the sample, against 46% of women) and adults (18-64 years, equal to 58%).
    However, about a quarter of those living in health poverty (102 thousand) are minors.
    The number of people who limit the number of visits and tests or give up part of the treatments to contain health expenditure is also increasing.
    This is a path that in 2023 was followed by a total of 3 million 369 thousand families.
    The phenomenon concerns poor families (1 in 4 has given up on medical care or visits at least once) but also non-poor families (12.8% have given up at least once).
    "The data and analyses of our Observatory on Health Poverty tell of a country in which fragile people struggle to take care of their health", underlines Sergio Daniotti, president of the Fondazione Banco Farmaceutico Ets. (ANSA).