In 2018, no cure for 18 million Europeans

During the past year, 18 million European citizens, around 3.6%, have not undergone the medical care they needed. And this percentage in Italy involved 2.6% of the population, or almost 1.6 million people, a number lower than the average of the 28 EU Member States, but which are particularly affected by high costs. This was revealed by Eurostat, which released statistics on 2018 data.
The analysis of the statistical office of the European Union showed that, in absolute terms, the largest number of people forced to give up treatment is in the United Kingdom (5.5 million), followed by Poland (3.2 million), from France (2.2 million) and Italy (1.6 million). But if you look at the percentage compared to the population, the worst situation is in Estonia with 19% while Italy is in 18th place (2.6%).
As for the causes, Greece reported the highest percentage of people with unmet medical needs due to unsustainable costs (8.3%), but this ranking sees Italy in fourth place (with 2%). In particular, of the approximately 1 million and 569,000 people who have given up on being treated in our country, 241,000 have done so for waiting lists that are too long, around 60,000 for fear and just as for lack of time; while the great majority, over 1 million and 200,000 citizens, because the treatments were too expensive. Numbers still high but in clear improvement compared to the surveys carried out in 2009, the year in which, in Italy, altogether 4.1 million people had renounced care, with a decrease since then, of about 60%.