Expecting a child in Viterbo or Tropea, or receiving a cancer diagnosis in Campobasso rather than in Alessandria can make the difference not in the quality of life but in survival or otherwise.
In Viterbo, a new mother will see that within 72 hours of giving birth, a few drops of blood will be taken from her baby's heel, thanks to which tests are carried out for more than 40 metabolic diseases and for SMA, spinal muscular atrophy , fatal disease but which with early treatment can slow down or even stop.
The same blood sample will be taken from the newborn of Tropea's mother but the test for SMA will not be done, because in her region it is not foreseen in the so-called newborn screening.
Both are Italian newborns but both are not guaranteed the same right to health, precisely the one provided for by article 32 of the Constitution.
Yet way back in 1978, in the law which established the national health service it was written that all citizens must have access to health services and in the same year the State invented the Lea, the essential levels - pay attention to this word - of assistance which must be guaranteed in all Italy.
But 45 years later it still doesn't happen.