Italy

Italy’s healthcare system is regionally organized and provides universal healthcare coverage to all citizens and legal residents via a mix of public and private systems. Anyone can elect to use the private system for specialized doctors and diagnostic tests to avoid wait times, but patients who opt for this will need to pay out of pocket, as it will not be covered by the national health service, Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN). Medicines, when prescribed by doctors, are generally subsidized, as is the case in many other destinations in the European Union. Italy’s medical tourism program is not nearly as developed as some of its European neighbors, but it does a lot with the traffic that it does have. Here, it ranks eighth overall, ahead of every European destination except Spain. It holds average rankings for medical categories, ranking 17th in medical Accreditations and 18th in Reputation.

*Based on the 2020 – 2021 Global MTI (Medical Tourism Index) Report published by the Medical Tourism Association.*