The national health service and the health card in Italy

Every resident with a valid residence permit for paid or self-employment, family, asylum, protection, naturalisation or renewal, and those who submitted a permit application awaiting the decision, has the right to compulsory registration with the SSN and equality with citizens in care, as do their family members.

• EU citizens residing with work or sufficient income or study also have the right after registering residence.
• Foreign students can register voluntarily with an annual contribution.
• Children below a certain age have a permanent right.
• Maternity and child care is granted without discrimination.
• And emergency first aid exists for anyone without condition.
• And the region you belong to is determined by your registered place of residence, so go first to the ASL in your area after registering residence.

Go to the registration office at the ASL (Ufficio Scelta e Revoca or Sportello Unico) with your passport and residence permit or receipt of its application and proof of residence or housing and the tax code, and submit the registration request.

• The ASL gives you the tessera sanitaria (arrives by post or is issued temporarily) and assigns you a medico di medicina generale, that is a family doctor, from the list of available doctors near your home, and for children a pediatra di libera scelta, a paediatrician until fourteen or sixteen.
• You can change the doctor at any time.
• The health card carries your tax code and is used for care and prescriptions.
• And the ASL renews your registration with the renewal of your residence permit, so follow that.

General care covers visits to the family doctor and paediatrician free, home consultation, hospitals, emergencies, childbirth, vaccinations and mental health.

• Tests, x-rays and consultations with specialists require a prescription (impegnativa) from the family doctor and a contribution (ticket) is paid that ranges by service, with exemptions by income, age, chronic illness, pregnancy and disability (esenzione).
• Interpreting and cultural mediators are available in many facilities.
• Essential medicines are paid free or with a contribution, and some medicines are paid in full.
• Dental care is limited (emergencies and programmes for children and the vulnerable) and most treatment requires private payment.
• Waiting lists may be long for tests and non-urgent surgery, so ask about priority routes.

Many people buy private health insurance from companies such as Generali, Unipol and Allianz or through the employer (fondi sanitari integrativi) to shorten waiting, choose doctors and cover dental care and tests.

• Read the exclusions, waiting periods and pre-existing illness.
• Some foreign students, residents without work, pensioners and those with residence for other reasons (such as elective residence) register voluntarily with the SSN by paying an annual contribution set by law by category (estimated at hundreds of euros), starting from the payment date.
• The contribution is paid by a special transfer, and you get the receipt to submit to the ASL.
• Check the current contribution amount and its conditions with the ASL or the ministry.
• And private insurance for short visits or companions without SSN has its own conditions.

For foreigners present without a valid residence permit the ASL office or health centres issue an STP code (Stranieri Temporaneamente Presenti) valid for six months and renewable, which grants the right to urgent and essential care, pregnancy and child care, vaccinations and treatment of infectious diseases free or with a ticket, and reporting the person to the police when receiving care is barred except in limited legal cases (without prior investigation).

• And organisations such as Emergency, Medici Senza Frontiere, Caritas and Doctors Without Borders offer free clinics.
• Do not avoid the doctor for fear about your status.
• And when moving between regions you register anew with the new ASL and choose a doctor, and keep the national health card.
• And a traveller may receive emergency treatment in any region.

What is an ASL?