{"id":837,"date":"2013-03-13T06:15:10","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T05:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=837"},"modified":"2021-09-11T22:27:19","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T20:27:19","slug":"healthcare-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/healthcare-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthcare in Italy: U.S. versus Them"},"content":{"rendered":"
About a year ago I was in the market to buy health insurance that would cover me in Italy. The insurance company required me to have a physical exam in order to pre-approve the policy, a standard procedure.\u00a0 This is how I wound up at a clinic for the criminally insane in the middle of Trastevere.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you sure<\/i> this is the place?\u201d I asked my girlfriend as we were wandering through the side streets, looking for the doctor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess so.\u00a0 It\u2019s the right address, but\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
She was obviously thinking the same thing that I was.\u00a0 The building in front of us looked more like a haunted, low-income housing project than a medical facility.\u00a0 The razor wire on top of the wall is what gave me this initial impression.\u00a0 There were, in fact, some hypodermic syringes scattered about the grounds, but it seemed unlikely that they had been used for their intended therapeutic purposes.<\/p>\n
To an American expat, Italy can often seem like a country of extremes.\u00a0 The extreme beauty of a Bernini fountain right next to a big pile of uncollected garbage. Prestigious universities filled with learned professors, but sorely lacking resources and adequate classroom space.\u00a0 Physicians that are highly skilled, but trapped inside facilities that were already outdated when they were built in the 1950\u2019s. \u00a0It can be hard to reconcile the juxtaposition of these contradictions, especially for someone who grew up in place where most everything is \u201csenza infamia e senza lode<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctor will see you now,\u201d said the nurse.<\/p>\n
I followed her down a short hallway, ignoring the moans coming from behind closed doors.\u00a0 I was led into a small room where a middle-aged man with long greasy hair was sitting next to an open window.\u00a0 He was wearing a white lab coat and his left hand hung over the window sill, clutching a smoldering cigarette, which allowed the majority (but not all) of the smoke to drift outside.<\/p>\n