Visitors from outside the EU may be required to pay for hospital care in Tuscany

I didn't read the article.

It's nothing other than foolishness if you travel internationally and do not have travel medical insurance. Why should a foreigner expect to get free health care, even for a minor medical treatment in emergency, if they don't pay the taxes for it.

I worked in healthcare for more than 30 years. I saw all of the following : travellers fall and fracture a hip and need surgery, fall ill with appendicitis and need surgery, get transverse myelitis ( for lay people - serious inflammation of the spinal cord, affecting ability to move legs). Those that had good travel medical insurance would get a case manager that would liase with local health care providers and provide assistance for travel back to the home country, maybe even accompanied with a nurse on a stretcher or at least an ambulance ride to the airport and seating in a more spacious seat, when airplane travel is safe. No insurance and you would be billed several thousand dollars a day for the hospital bed and more fees for the surgeon/medical care and medications and have to figure out how to get back home when you were well enough to undertake the rigour of an ordinary airplane flight and prolonged sitting.

Bottom line- get decent travel medical insurance. If you have underlying medical conditions that might not get covered if things go bad, then consider you will be paying thousands for out of pocket for care, if you need it.

Do people really go on foreign holidays without any insurance?

We were shocked each time we received free medical care in Europe. We would pay a fee which ranged from only 3 Euro to 65 Euro. The 3Euro charge was to stitch my arm back together after a bad fall. I am surprised it took the Europeans so long to deal with this. We were surprised by the minuscule 3Euro charge after spending hours in the ER.

If you are a healthy senior over age 75, travel health insurance is almost impossible to purchase. If anyone knows a good source for purchasing a policy, we would appreciate the information.

To relieve the pressure on Tuscany’s hospitals, the regional government is considering introducing mandatory health insurance for visitors from non-EU countries.

While I agree that tourists should have health insurance, how would a region enforce this? They’d have to introduce regional borders where visitors had to show proof of insurance before entering Tuscany. I suppose there could be some kind of online registration system, but enforcement would be a challenge.

If you are a healthy senior over age 75, travel health insurance is almost impossible to purchase.

Cynthia, Have you checked GeoBlue or Allianz? Both offer annual multi-trip plans. GeoBlue says up to age 95.

I just got an email from Medjet saying hey it's OK if you're old, there is just a different procedure to follow.

So perhaps reach out to them to get advice on companies that deal with the seniors.

One approach for medical coverage overseas after a “certain age” is to buy a Medicare supplement policy that covers you worldwide for urgent and emergency care. My Medicare Advantage plan has this coverage. I have additional coverage with my credit card. Finally, I count on my Medjet policy to get me home if prolonged care required.

For a healthy senior over 75: If you go to the World Nomads website and configure a quote for insurance, and put in an age over 70, they inform you:

World Nomads has partnered with TripAssure to support and administer
trip protection for Silver Nomads aged 70 and over.

https://www.worldnomads.com/usa/travel-insurance/silver-nomads

You then are referred here:

https://www.tripassure.com/main/

TripAssure is a brand of Generali, which is a major provider of travel policies.

I am over 75 and have an annual travel policy that includes health care abroad. Hope not to use it so don't know how good it is. But 6 years ago when I was about 75, my then policy covered a hospital stay and surgery in southern France -- the cost for 4 days in the hospital and surgery was about $4000. Travel insurance is expensive when you are old. But then so it Medicare in the US and the co-pays.

I am shocked that a medical system as underfunded as the Italian one is comparatively has not always charged for medical care for those not part of the EU.

They are not enforcing health insurance at the border. They are simply going to ask to pay the patient at the public hospitals. So far they simply charge the copay that an Italian would pay (co-pay amounts vary based on your income status, age, and other criteria. Not sure what level of income they charge visitors), which is still very low by American standards.

Since the regional governments have not established a charging mechanism, I'm not sure if public hospital people would know how much to charge for a full reimbursement. I think they still need to come up with a fee schedule of some sort.

It is well known that 80% of patients at Italian emergency departments are “tourists” from extra-EU countries, like Nigeria, Congo, Sudan, Bangladesh, Senegal, Tunisia, Siria, Ukraine, etc.. lots of tourists from those countries come to Tuscany to see the Uffizi and the beaches of Viareggio. Many are tourists who come on cruises whose first port of call is Lampedusa. Somehow they get sick in great numbers and engulf the Tuscan health system. Maybe they eat cruise food and get food poisoned.

Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani is the funniest comedian in Italian politics.

The article does not say anything of value.

The article on La Nazione, Florence's main daily, says that Giani said that 8 out of 10 patients at some Tuscan hospitals are non EU tourists (see below). That is a ridiculous assertion. It is true that many foreign migrants, especially those whose immigration status does not allow them to access full NHS coverage, resort to the Emergency Department to get care. That is also true in America (I work in a hospital system). But to think that North American and Japanese tourists (which form the bulk of the non EU tourists in Florence but collectively will not amount to more than 10% of the entire population of Florence including EU tourists) account for 80% of the ER entries is statistically improbable.

I'm not saying that ER services at public hospitals should be free for tourists from outside the EU, but to make the bold statement that 80% of ER is used by non EU tourists (i.e. North American and Japanese, mostly) is nonsense. Tuscany is one of the few regions that has not implemented the requirement to charge non EU citizens the full price and basically you are asked to pay only the co-pay that Italians would pay. That is a failure on the part of the Regional government (the NHS in Italy is managed autonomously by the Regions), not the tourists'.

https://www.lanazione.it/cronaca/turisti-ospedale-smw3hyl1