The right to health and preventive care in Italy is increasingly confronted by insurmountable economic and organizational barriers, especially for the elderly. According to data from the GIMBE Foundation, in 2024 9.9% of the population, or more than 5.8 million people, said they had forgone one or more health services. Among the main reasons for abandoning care are long waiting times, which blocked about 4 million citizens, and financial difficulties, affecting 3.1 million people. This picture of deprivation is further aggravated by absolute poverty, which in the year affected more than 2.2 million households (8.4% of the total), with the highest levels in the South and the Islands.
In this scenario, the new 300-euro voucher for low-income seniors aged 75 and over represents an initial line of defense against forgoing care. The initiative aims to ensure continuity of care and therapeutic adherence, even more crucial in the elderly, with the goal of protecting healthy longevity starting from local communities in a country undergoing a significant demographic transition.
Access requirements for those 75 and older
The measure approved by the Council of Ministers aims to support the segment of the population most exposed to multiple chronic diseases and socio-economic fragility. The requirements defined by the Government for access to the 300-euro individual contribution are based on two rigid parameters. The first is the age criterion, which reserves the right exclusively to citizens aged 75 years or older. The second is the income limit, which restricts eligibility to those who receive a pension not exceeding €28,000 gross per year.
The implementing decrees of the plan will clarify whether the allocation will be automatic, via INPS pension databases, or whether a specific application will be required, as well as define whether the economic evaluation will consider only pension income or the ISEE household indicator (the Italian household income indicator).
Ways the credit will be disbursed
The contribution will not be distributed as cash, but through traceable methods designated exclusively for the health and care sector, though details have not yet been released. The Government is considering the introduction of a dedicated electronic card or the loading of a digital health credit, modeled after other social bonuses.
This setup will ensure that the resources are spent entirely at pharmacies, drugstores, diagnostic centers, and accredited social-healthcare facilities. However, the alternative possibility of a direct reimbursement system remains open, which would require beneficiaries to submit receipts for the expenses incurred to credit the amount to their bank accounts.
The healthcare services and benefits covered
The voucher is designed to cover out-of-pocket costs that weigh on family budgets (€42.3 million in 2025, per GIMBE data), especially for services not guaranteed by the public health system or slowed by waiting lists. The bonus can be used to support: non-nurse home socio-healthcare services, rehabilitation physiotherapy pathways, and the purchase of prostheses or medical aids.
On the prevention and diagnostics front, the allocation will cover private specialist visits, over-the-counter medication costs, drug copayments, and dental care, a sector historically excluded from the protections of the National Health Service, almost entirely paid by the citizen (and often the first to be cut in times of economic hardship).
The GP as the lead coordinator of prevention in the community
The real effectiveness of this allocation, however limited, lies in the ability to turn the monetary bonus into a public health intervention. At the local level, the General Practitioner (GP) by understanding in detail how the bonus works and its boundaries can exercise a strategic leadership role.
The family physician, knowing the patient’s clinical history, comorbidities, and social context, can direct the use of the contribution toward the patient’s real therapeutic priorities, encouraging a postponed visit for financial reasons or supporting adherence to treatments, thereby becoming a guarantor of genuine care management and continuity of care in the community.
Abbonati a Karla Miller
