Friday, July 01, 2011

Welcome to consumer-driven healthcare, Italy

A story in today's Wall Street Journal European and online editions covers a plan by the Italian government to introduce austerity measures in response to their fiscal crisis:

Included in the budget plan, which the government hopes Parliament will approve before the end of July, [is] the introduction of fees for medical visits.

I think people in much of the world will be surprised to learn that there have been no such fees to date. I guess it is time for Italians to learn about co-pays. Will it have an influence on the degree to which they seek medical care?

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