obscure2k

As an FYI, if you have medical emergency in Venice:
call for a water taxi to take you to the Giovanni and Paulo ER. The ambulance takes significantly longer to arrive at the ER than a taxi ..OTOH, the taxi driver can't start an IV. However, that IV will be started a lot sooner if transported to hospital by taxi. When we arrived, it was a cluster ****** for hours. There is no way to romanticize this experience. Good to know that someone else has had better experiences. Ultimately, my husband (who is a physician) received such dismal care and such poor communication that he discharged himself (AMA...Against Medical Advice.). After he received sufficient hydration, it was clear that the only way to return to our hotel was to contact a friend. I suggest you do not count on the paramedics to arrive and transport you to the hospital in as timely manner, Get to the ER ASAP. Have a phone number handy for a friend who can offer assistance
.

KLouis

Having been a medic myself (now retired) I think that advising people to go to the nearest pharmacy can be very dangerous. I know that there are pharmacists who are in position to give a rudimentary first help, but they will refer one to the nearest hospital ER if the patient has something serious. Thus, going to the pharmacy first will only delay real help if one is in a serious condition...

Perche

rove312

My experience is different; it could be a matter of semantics, and there are differences by region. My mother, on a short visit to Italy, had a mild stroke and was admitted to a regular hospitalization in a small town, stayed for four nights, and was billed over €4000. My understanding was that the ER treatment could have been free, but the hospitalization coming out of it had no coverage.

KLouis

Could it have been a private (for-profit) hospital as opposed to a non-profit, public one?

Perche

Must have been there is universal health care in Italy. Doctors work for the government, and get to retire at around age 50. That's still very young, so many doctors go into private, "concierge" medicine type of hospitals, where they continue to collect their government paid pension for life, and add onto it and become rich with a private for profit practice. Public hospitals may not have flat screen TV, but it's the same care by similarly trained doctors. But the public system is free. The USA will never crack the top 20 in health care, absent a cataclysmic change. From the World Health Organization rankings, and the cost of health care in Italy for emergencies, including tourists, is free:World Health Organization (WHO) Ranking of the World’s 100 Best Health Systems

“This (2010) report examines and compares aspects of health systems around the world. It provides conceptual insights into the complex factors that explain how health systems perform and offers practical advice on how to assess performance and achieve improvements with available resources.”
1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 German Healthcare
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada Healthcare
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 US HealthCare
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba
40 Brunei
41 New Zealand
42 Bahrain
43 Croatia
44 Qatar
45 Kuwait
46 Barbados
47 Thailand
48 Czech Republic
49 Malaysia
50 Poland51 Dominican Republic
52 Tunisia
53 Jamaica
54 Venezuela
55 Albania
56 Seychelles
57 Paraguay
58 South Korea
59 Senegal
60 Philippines
61 Mexico Healthcare
62 Slovakia
63 Egypt
64 Kazakhstan
65 Uruguay
66 Hungary
67 Trinidad and Tobago
68 Saint Lucia
69 Belize
70 Turkey
71 Nicaragua
72 Belarus
73 Lithuania
74 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
75 Argentina
76 Sri Lanka
77 Estonia
78 Guatemala
79 Ukraine
80 Solomon Islands
81 Algeria
82 Palau
83 Jordan
84 Mauritius
85 Grenada
86 Antigua and Barbuda
87 Libya
88 Bangladesh
89 Macedonia
90 Bosnia-Herzegovina
91 Lebanon
92 Indonesia
93 Iran
94 Bahamas
95 Panama
96 Fiji
97 Benin
98 Nauru
99 Romania
100 Saint Kitts and Nevis

Source: http://www.who.int/whr/2010/en/

rove312

Most certainly not. It was some years ago.

JMN57

Couple of data point:

I went to the ER in Perugia @ Ospedale Santa Maria della Misericordia (m ajor regional center) two years ago for stomach pains which, ultimately, was an intestinal blockage. They admitted me and I spent the night. I was billed, as I recall, about €280 or so.

My wife had a kidney stone attack last year in Pontremoli. She had a couple of CT Scans (€80 each) and some other things that, all together probably cost €300-400). We did go to a specialist at Osepdale Versilia which, while at a public hospital, was a private arrangement. I don't recall specifically what he charged but I think it was in the €200-250 range

All said, as a foreigner in Italy you can incur costs for medical care but they are generally quite moderate. Personally, as we're generally spending more time outside of the US and spending a lot of time at our house in Italy (am here now), I bought a one year GeoBlus travel insurance policy (https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com) for the quite cheap price of $200 for two people.

KLouis

My wife also went to the same hospital like JMN57 in Perugia four years ago after she got one of our dog's canines (literally, not a pun!) deep into her hand when while trying to separate him and another dog who were fighting over a sheer stupidity (i.e. at least for us non-dogs). Three visits to the ER, cost zero €. The therapy was continued in Heraklion by one of the local fancy and expensive plastic surgeons: again zero cost (he was my student in 1985 ).

iapetus

My family and I were at Pompeii last week with some friends. My son overheats easily. He and mrs. iapetus and my mother-in-law were done. So I sent them and my daughter back to the entrance and went on to see the amphitheater with a couple of friends. By the time I reunited with them, my son was in an ambulance, suffering from dehydration. He was given an IV in the ambulance. After all was said and done, everyone -- including the very friendly Italian EMTs -- agreed that a hospital visit wasn't necessary, and he was "discharged". Having already given them my address and contact information, I asked to verify that the bill would be sent to me. They laughed at me. When I repeated the question, they laughed again. Of course there would be no bill! Such a silly American am I.

GUWonder

Perche

I don't have a European Health Insurance Card. It may vary from country to country, but it would appear to be not worth the time for a foreigner traveling to Italy. I had to let go of my Italian social security card, whereby health care is free, when I moved back to the USA (I'm a dual citizen, and do a lot of back and forth). I don't really see the need for an EHIC in Italy because emergency health care is free, anyway.

Medicare doesn't cover overseas medical bills, but I believe most Medigap (Medicare Part F) do. But who needs it in Italy where emergency care, even including the ambulance ride if you need it, is free. You cannot make an appointment with a doctor and see them to manage a chronic, non-emergency medical problem, like high blood pressure, or diabetes. But if you have a heart attack or go into diabetic coma, the care will be free.

When I moved back to the USA from Venice in 2011, and back from Torino in 2013, I could no longer qualify for the Italian social security medical care, because I gave up my apartments. But my thoughts, and don't hold me responsible, are:

An EHIC doesn't cover regular doctor visits, just emergencies, that are already covered anyway. It doesn't pay for you to fly back to the USA if you get sick and want to go back. It doesn't pay for dental care. It does give you some ability to make doctors appointments within the public health system. It might give you a break on the cost of some medications, or it might not. It depends. The cost of medications in Italy are much higher than in the USA.

I don't know what an EHIC does in other EU countries, but I never bothered because it didn't seem to matter. Besides working in a hospital in Torino for a year, I had the following three needs for emergency health care in Italy.

1. About three years ago I decided to kayak from Venice out to the lagoon, and visit all of the obscure islands, Torcello, Sant'Erasmo, Mazzorbo, Vignole, stop for lunch in Burano, then I decided since I'm not that far from Marco Polo airport, to paddle to the airport. Then to the Project Mose, on the other side of the lagoon that consists of barriers to block aqua alta to see how the construction was going (not well). The next day my wrist was massively swollen, because of overuse from going to Mose, where you battle some tough water. I went to the Emergency Room at Oespedale San Giovanni e Paolo in Castello. After a 20 minute wait, I saw the ER doc, told him what happened, he sent me for x-rays, and called in an orthopedist who examined me and fit me with a wrist brace. Leaving the ER I asked about payment. They said there is a machine outside of the plaza, and I can pay there. It was like a parking meter. You could have walked right on your way, but I checked it, and the bill was about 25 euros, which of course I put my credit card in and paid.

2. About two years ago I was eating pizza in Rome, and all of a sudden I felt something crunchy and thought, "who put a chicken bone in my pizza?!" I spit it out. For about 25 years I had a bridge. I had a missing tooth, so in the USA they put on a bridge that connected the tooth in front of the missing tooth, and the tooth behind it, and it had a fake tooth, so it wasn't noticeable. For about 4 years dentists in the USA kept telling me to have it removed and insert an implant. Since the US health care system is basically focused on making money, I always declined, but I spit out the pizza, and in it was my bridge. I went to a dentist, no EHIC and EHIC doesn't cover dentistry anyway., and I had dental insurance back in the USA. I made an urgent appointment to see a dentist anyway. He asked me if it was hurting or bothering me, and I said no. He told me he would do an implant (not covered by EHIC) but it could wait until I get back to the USA with no risk whatsoever.

3. This one will make me seem nuts, but last year my house in CA was undergoing major reconstruction, and the stairs to it were dug up, and lights removed. On a moonless night while carrying two bags and unable to hold onto the rails, I took a major tumble and broke six ribs, right over my spleen. That's a 20% risk of splenic injury that would require hospitalization, possibly surgery, or some other intervention. The average cost of a hospital stay in the USA is $10,000, and that does not include the cost of any operation, blood tests, etc; just the bed. Even if you have insurance, with deductibles, co-pays, the system is nuts. The risk of bleeding from a ruptured spleen persists for a month, but goes down day by day. So I waited two days to make sure I wasn't actively bleeding, and bought a first-class ticket to Rome, with a lie flat bed, etc, because it would be far less expensive than going to a hospital in the USA. Plus, Italy is ranked second best health care in the world and the USA is ranked 29th. Spain just leaped over France which previously had been ranked number one by the World Health Organization.

I landed at FCO and took a taxi to a hospital in downtown Rome that is right in the middle of the Tiber River, Oespedale Fatebenefratelli. Although I'm a dual citizen, it doesn't matter. I wasn't even asked. They incorrectly logged me in as a citizen of the USA. nBroken ribs are an emergency, so they just took care of them. I didn't ask for a bill, and they didn't offer one.

I wouldn't recommend this strategy to everyone, but I was transitioning through jobs, old insurance dropped, and new insurance hadn't kicked in yet, so to avoid a typical $50,000 hospital bill I knew it would be cheaper to fly first class to Italy and stay in a hotel, and get health care that every rating system, from Bloomberg, to the WHO ranks as being light years ahead of the American system.

If you want the assurance of having an EHIC, and I'm not sure what it provides beyond Italy's free emergency care service, be wary that a lot of websites are selling it for a fee, and they are all scams. The card takes 2-3 weeks to process over the internet, and is free. You can apply online yourself.Any website that offers to help you get an EHIC for is ripping you off.

In Italy it is not called EHIC, it is called TEAM; Tessera Europea Assicurazione Mallatia. The cost is borne by tax dollars from your home country, the USA. You automatically get one if you live in Italy and are registered with the National Health Insurance, to make it easier if you are traveling for example, to Austria when you are a resident in Italy.

Although an EHIC is free and only takes 2-3 weeks to get through an online form, I'm just not seeing the benefits since emergency health care in Italy is free anyway. Since the EHIC is free and easy to obtain since it's paid by your tax payer dollars there is no reason not to get one, but for me personally, I've never felt the need, since any emergency care in Italy, even if you are an American traveling there on vacation, is free.

estnet

Really? That's hard to believe since the costs are so high in the US. Not doubting you just really surprised.

Perche

Health care is cheap, but for some reason, at the pharmacy when you try to buy something it is always more expensive. But you are right in a way. In the USA if you have health insurance (that usually costs a fortune), then you usually just have to pay the co-pay, after you've satisfied the deductible. In Italy it doesn't work that way, unless you are on their social security system. That requires a stable address, and an inspection to prove that you live there. I know some people who rent a cheap place and hang old clothes in the closet so that when the unscheduled inspector comes to verify that you live there, and you are not there, they check with the landlord who lets them in, and says, "Of course he lives here, look at all of his clothes, his underwear in the drawer, he just has to travel a lot so he's not here right now."

In the USA if you don't have insurance, which I didn't have for a bit because of a job change, the pharmacy wanted about $750 for my one single blood pressure medication. So you are right, medications in the USA are prohibitively expensive if you don't have insurance, and millions don't. In Italy medications are more expensive, but in the USA if you don't have insurance most medications are unaffordable. Bottom line, if you are going there for an extended period of time, bring your meds with you. Ask the insurance company to give you a travel waiver so that you can get an extended amount of meds that will last throughout your travel.

In the USA with insurance most meds are cheap. Without insurance, for many meds, the cost is ghastly. In Italy the costs are more expensive than for an insured person in the USA, so make sure you have enough medication to last for your trip. In Italy even a small box of aspirin can cost you 6-8 euros.

estnet

I don't know the costs of meds in Italy obviously, but I was referring to the full cost (not based on insurance). The bp med you mentioned that would have cost 750 in the US would cost how much in Italy?

In the US without insurance costs vary wildly between different pharmacies and being smart is important. I notified an MD than the med he had rx'd cost $3000 (yes thousand) - which had been increased from $300 a few years ago for ONE PILL THAT COMBINED 2 OTC MEDS THAT WOULD COST ABOUT $30 for both. So taking 1 pill that required an rx rather than 2 pills cost you thousands of dollars BUT since most people have insurance they may not be aware of or care - of course with "managed care" (which I am usually not in favor of) the insurance may catch this.

There are lots of weird things - eg the cost of a Nonsteroidal cream that I used costs $80 in the US and requires a prescription, the SAME med in France does not require rx and costs about $8, (the generic version costs $3 in Thailand),