The Covid-19 Pandemic Puts Us in Front of the Vexata Quaestio: Health is a Right or a Privilege?

Abstract

Coronavirus crisis has shown the importance of public healthcare systems, emphasizing the need to strengthen them. In Italy pandemic has stressed the problems afflicting the National Health System, bringing out the structural and organizational fragmentation present in each of the 21 regions, namely lopsided reduction in intensive care beds, structural deficiencies, workers below the number necessary to cover shifts, lack of equipment and material, and much more. All the limits of a fragmented healthcare system have been highlighted, as well as the different operating arrangements existing among the various regions. The lack of a single control room during pandemic has caused inhomogeneity of communication strategies and conflicting messages among the local institutional offices. As a result, Italy followed the spread of the virus rather than prevented it. Thus, fairness in access to services and territorial autonomy must not be lopsided among the 21 Regions. Healthcare in Italy, as in the rest of the world, should respond to the logic of care, rather than follow the logic of the market, local political interest and provide a health service on demand. This must not create competition between public and private health systems, but sets the rules for the possible and natural coexistence of systems. Quality healthcare is a human right, not a privilege, and should never be influenced by economic disparities.