Few children, too many bonuses: we risk healthcare collapse
Fabrizio Gatti
Editor-in-chief for Insights
03 October 2023 06:53
In recent months, at least among gossipy news about members of the government and the majority of childbearing age, I have been waiting to read the announcement that dozens of my younger brothers and sisters will soon be born in Italy. When I listened to the video last spring of Northern League Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti’s greeting to the States General regarding the birth rate, I realized: “I believe that it needs to be strongly reiterated that the economic system is closely related to the birth rate phenomenon, as Giorgetti recalled. The influence somehow There is also the possibility of quantifying it: at current fertility rates, between now and 2042, our country risks losing impressive percentages of GDP in the process, namely 18 percent.
Would the Giorgetti method be sufficient? Even if we work hard now, those born in nine months will only be eighteen years old in 2042, and most likely at such young ages they will not alone be able to guarantee 18 percent of the current gross domestic product. However, if the birth rate is the only remedy chosen by Giorgia Meloni’s team to save Italy from demographic collapse, we hope that at least the youngest among the members of the government, the Parliamentary majority and voters have already achieved this. They are devoted to your partner’s knowledge of the Bible. Otherwise, we would be too late by the 2042 deadline.
Giancarlo Giorgetti’s prediction
There is nothing to joke about. The update note of the public finance planning document (Nadef), presented recently by the Minister of Economy, reveals a country that is increasingly enslaved by the irresponsible choices of recent majorities. Past and present.
There is no shortage of examples. In fact, we spent a fortune financing all kinds of bonuses and are still spending them. There are at least 22 on the Confcommercio online portal. This hundred billion can be devoted to industrial research and the construction of systems that produce photovoltaic energy, from coatings to buildings. From holiday incentives to spas and even TV purchases, even if the ones that are replaced and thrown into landfill are still working just fine.
The first description of this grassroots policy was presented recently. The government does not talk openly about this issue. But one of the clearest cuts to next year’s spending, hidden among the Nadef tables, concerns our health: one billion 788 million costs and services will be eliminated in 2024; This compares with healthcare spending in 2023 at 1.32 percent. 134.73 billion current budget to 132.94 billion planned for next year. It will then rise to 136.70 in 2025 and 138.97 the following year.
The reduction of almost two billion in the hands of the regions in a year probably means the closure of hospitals, cuts in the hiring of doctors and nurses (who, among other things, are also unavailable), reductions in overtime, longer waiting lists, staff shortages. For preventive purposes, patients whose condition worsened or died before receiving treatment. It’s the exact opposite of what was said in months of lockdown rhetoric during the pandemic.
When healthcare costs explode
If we compare Giorgetti’s maneuver with the planning of Mario Draghi’s government two years ago, national health spending exploded by over ten billion compared to then forecasts: the counts actually stalled at 123.55 billion for 2023 and 124.42 billion for 2024.
We were not this miserable before the pandemic. Spending on public health in 2018 was $118 billion; This was almost seventeen billion fewer than today. The consequences of Covid over time and the disruption of ordinary health services come at a cost. However, the aging of the population is also important as it affects the quality of health. Meanwhile, pension spending will rise from the current 317 billion to 361 billion in 2026, according to forecasts by the Northern League minister’s team.
Citizens who are still children today, who will be between the ages of 19 and 28 in the fateful date of 2042 and will be the youngest group of taxpayers, constitute only 4 million 666 thousand, that is, 7.9 percent of the current population. Again, according to Istat’s predictions, in 2042, 34 percent of Italians will be people over the age of 65.
As explained by graphs (here in the article) published by the government of Paolo Gentiloni in 2018 and almost identical by Giorgia Meloni’s technicians, this demographic imbalance – if not corrected with new residents – will have two consequences: an explosion in public debt A decrease in tax revenues and an increase in social spending The collapse of health and social security systems due to or as a result of this is having dramatic effects on life expectancy and Italy’s position among industrial democracies.
From Mattei plan to Matteo plan
But if even the majority members do not actively respond to the calls for birth launched by Minister Giorgetti and his government colleague Francesco Lollobrigida last spring, what can be done to prevent Italy from sinking? Of course, the current prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is not responsible for the periods when the right wing was not in government. But besides the fact that he has not closed the bonus policy, he has at least one responsibility: having archived for now the Mattei plan, which supports relations with some countries of origin of the flows, and has already surrendered to the Matteo plan.
Minister Matteo Salvini has actually managed to impose once again his vision of immigration (which has remained fruitless for twenty years) on the entire government: new detention camps for foreigners, new prison sentences extended to eighteen months, new crimes, new disputes with Germany, they are struggling with the same problems as we are. Expensive and ostentatious measures that will not change the reality one bit, as in the past. Instead, recommendations will be needed. What do you intend to do to prevent Italy’s demographic collapse and keep gross domestic product at least at current levels? Worker, doctor, nurse, waiter, expert technician, engineer, bus driver, etc. What kind of solution do you want to bring to the deficiencies? How can we intervene to stop the population decline of our rural provinces?
On the anniversary of the tragic shipwreck that occurred in the Lampedusa Sea in 2013, we commemorate the victims who lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea on October 3 and October 11, and those who survived and lost their loved ones. We published the letter of one of them, 46-year-old Syrian neurosurgeon Mazen Dahhan, who had to flee Aleppo with his family due to the war. There were also doctors, university professors and engineers on the fishing boat that sank with his wife and three children.
However, none of the survivors stopped in Italy. They came to Switzerland, Germany, Sweden; here were pragmatic laws, not Matteo’s plan, they learned the language, and many of them go on to become doctors, professors and engineers. If it were us, they would deliver pizza to your home at most, thanks to our own goal rules. Many ancient and contemporary societies have resolved demographic crises with migration. Italy also did this with the introduction of periodic amnesties and planned quotas starting from 1998. If it is not justified for smugglers to decide Italy’s migration policy, let’s open legal channels appropriate to the need. Or in the meantime, we train those who come quickly. If we do nothing, Italy’s decline will be inevitable.
As Francesco Lollobrigida said, I think most of you disagree because you are afraid of losing “the attachment to Italian culture, to our linguistic background, to our way of life, to which many people, especially like me, depend.” The Minister of Food Sovereignty once said this. The same result can be achieved by teaching new citizens the Italian language, history and culture and not interrupting integration courses. However, if you think like a minister, at least do not waste your time. And bring us the good news nine months later.
Continue reading on Today.it…
Source: Today IT

Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.