Season of health cuts is over - Speranza

(ANSA) - Rome, November 21 - Health Minister Roberto Speranza said Thursday that the government's abolition of the so-called 'super-ticket' charge for some medical examinations and tests marked a turning point for the national health system.
    "With the farewell to the worst tax, the superticket, and more funding for the service, we have said goodbye to the season of cuts," Speranza told an ANSA forum, adding that the budget bill allocates two billion euros in fresh cash. He said that the government was seeking to find "balance" in its reform of the ordinary 'ticket' charges by which people make a small contribution to the cost of the public tests and examinations. He also vowed to cut waiting lists by boosting the nation's family-doctor clinics. "The issue of waiting lists is enormous," he said.
    "Funds to take clinical diagnostics equipment into family-doctor clinics will improve the situation, by making it possible to do small ultrasound scans and checks on the respiratory system.
    "This will also act as a filter for the emergency rooms".