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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1361642

European Structural funds to finance healthcare in Italian regions

Provisionally accepted
ELISABETTA A. GRAPS ELISABETTA A. GRAPS 1Raffaele Lagravinese Raffaele Lagravinese 2*adriano ruggiero adriano ruggiero 2
  • 1 Strategic Regional Agency for Health and Social Care, Bari, Italy
  • 2 University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In this work, we explore the extensive utilization of European Union Structural Funds to enhance regional healthcare systems in Italy over the period 2014-2020. These funds serve as vital instruments for financing the construction, renovation, and modernization of healthcare facilities, as well as supporting medical research and technological innovation. They enable the implementation of disease prevention and health promotion programs and provide essential income support to vulnerable families through the European Social Fund.Our analysis found that EU funding allocated to "health-related" projects during the 2014-2020 programming period, amounts to just over 6.19 billion euros [5.1 billion financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and just over 1 billion financed by the European Social Fund (ESF)], of which 65.88% is funded by European resources. These funds supported a total of 26,739 projects, with 22,529 funded by the ERDF, primarily focusing on infrastructure projects and the acquisition of new technologies in the healthcare sector. Meanwhile, the 4,210 projects funded by the ESF were dedicated to personnel training and public health policies in the regions. The European co-financing provided by the ERDF exceeded 63%, while for the ESF, the European share was approximately 77%.Notably, some regions have leveraged these funds to pioneer telemedicine and healthcare technologies, improving healthcare accessibility, especially in remote areas.

    Keywords: European Union, structural funds, healthcare, Investments, Italy

    Received: 26 Dec 2023; Accepted: 19 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 GRAPS, Lagravinese and ruggiero. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Raffaele Lagravinese, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

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