Maneuver: Gimbe, '22.7 billion in invisible cuts to healthcare from 2022'

In the last five years the national health service has suffered an invisible cut of 22.7 billion as a result of the progressive reduction of the National Health Fund in relation to GDP. This is the estimate of the Gimbe Foundation audited on the maneuver in the joint Budget Commissions of the House and Senate.

From 2022, President Gimbe Nino Cartabellotta illustrated, in absolute terms the National Health Fund has grown by 20.9 billion, going from 125.4 billion in 2022 to the 146.3 billion expected for 2027. However, the scenario changes if we consider the National Health Fund in relation to GDP. In this case, if in 2022 the FSN represented 6.27% of the national product, its weight progressively reduced in the following years until it reached 6.14% in 2026 and dropped to 6.11% in 2027. "Small decimals which, added all together, are almost a point of GDP", said Cartabellotta.

According to Gimbe, if the ratio had remained at the 2022 level from 2023 to 2027, the health service could have had around 22.7 billion more available. The effects of this lack of increase are observed above all in the budgets of the Regions, which, in 2025, observed a deficit of 2.3 billion, almost 800 million more than in 2024. For the Regions the choice is "to cut services or increase taxes on citizens", added Cartabellotta. "In both cases it is the citizens who pay."

For their part, citizens are already suffering: healthcare spending incurred by families in 2025 reached 42.4 billion. "This expenditure has been flattening in recent years, but not because citizens are more covered by all public funds, but because the number of people who cannot spend on health is growing", underlined President Gimbe. This also explains the 5.6 million people who give up healthcare services.

On the measures contained in the maneuver, Gimbe urges various corrections, above all to "allocate the elderly voucher entirely to the health fund. The elderly need continuous care, not a temporary bonus", concluded Cartabellotta.