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Buondì.
This is another one of those articles that I wrote yesterday, in the sense that when the system sends it out on the Wednesday morning I’ll be busy elsewhere.
It’ll be the same next week and the week after that when I’ll be visiting Britain and returning to Italy, respectively, on successive Wednesdays. So I’ll write the articles ahead, and the system does the rest. Clever, really.
Talking of Britain, someone from there (I think) wrote to our Italian school to ask about Italy’s healthcare system, specifically hospitals. I won’t go into details about why she wanted to know, but she had various questions, such as whether the nurses were any good, and whether patients get a separate room.
If you’re planning a long trip in another country, and unless you’re a sprightly young thing with no health issues at all, which I’m not, then it does make sense to consider what might happen if you became ill. And then put it out of your mind…
I’ll only be in the UK for a week, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I spend it eating Cornish pasties and drinking proper beer, rather than moaning on a stretcher in a hospital corridor.
The airline I booked with insisted that the European Union strongly advises me to take out travel insurance, which they then tried to sell me, along with airport transfers, hotel rooms, and anything that could be consider vaguely related to my trip.
But as this is the same airline that charges people to sit with their travelling companions, use the toilet, take a spare pair of socks on holiday with them, and so on, and as I’m allergic to insurance of all kinds, I managed to resist. And £27 A DAY? That’s pasty/beer money!
Our house isn’t insured, the car and motorbike just have the obligatory ‘RC’ (“La Responsabilità Civile verso Terzi RCG è un’assicurazione che viene stipulata per tutelare se stessi o il proprio patrimonio per eventuali danni che possono essere causati a terze persone.” source: https://italianonprofit.it/risorse/definizioni/polizza-di-responsabilita-civile-generale-verso-terzi/ ), we have no pets (they died years back, uninsured), and as for our own lives – Stefi is a tough old thing, thank goodness, and covering me would ‘costa un occhio dalla testa’ (an eye from the head = an arm and a leg) given my perilous condition.
But none of that appears to be so unusual in Italy. Being a Brit, I couldn’t help but notice that while my compatriots seem obsessed with insurance (they even insure their insurance), Italians don’t much bother with it, unless it’s something that can obviously be profited from at someone else’s expense, such as faking ‘colpo di frusta‘, an insurance payout for which is the hoped-for silver lining in even the most minor traffic collision.
If I ever go ‘abroad’ and take a proper language course, which I’ve long threatened to do but put off due to the pandemic, and then Bug and his predecessors, I dare say I will shell out for some cover, just to be on the safe side. A stay in a foreign hospital is a great place to learn languages, but the effect is ruined if you need to worry about paying the bills.
But back to the lady asking about Italian healthcare. Here’s my reply to her (shorn of idenifying details, obviously):
Everyone says that healthcare in Italy varies hugely depending on the region, as the health service is organised regionally. There’s no N in the Italian HS: So I can only speak about Bologna.
Bologna has multiple good hospitals with a national reputation. It also has an aged population (average around 50) with the usual healthcare issues, so there appear to be plenty of resources for diseases which primarily affect the old. I’ve been in S.Orsola (teaching hospital) twice, and Maggiore (bigger, more modern) once, and can’t complain. Emergency care was good, prompt and free. Elective care means waiting, but probably much less than we hear happens in the UK.
Nurses were always fine, but much more so in the ‘intensive’ wards. In the usual wards it’s more likely that patients are expected to get help from relatives, or manage themselves. But again, people were kind and I can’t complain. I’ve always been in old-style multi-bed wards, except once in the cardiac intensive care at S.Orsola, which was single room.
If you’re planning to MOVE to Italy, take care to find out what you need to do to qualify for healthcare. Probably it means being a ‘resident’, which will have tax implications.
And, I should have mentioned, will be VERY BUREAUCRATIC. You have been warned.
Anyway, so that’s where I’ll be tomorrow morning (today as you read this). At S.Orsola hospital, where all three of our kids were born and where I’ve spent various unpleasant stints previously.
This time it’s routine, though, and, unsually, I’ll have to pay – perhaps fifty dollars, something like that. Not a worrying sum by American standards, anyway. Healthcare for chronic conditions in this region is often exempt. If you survive your first encounter with whatever ails you, they give you a ‘codice esenzione’, then you’re laughing all the way to the drugstore.
I don’t remember the last time I had to pull out a credit card in a hospital, clinic or pharmacy. But they’re cutting back, apparently, so this time ‘la prima visita’ will be ‘a pagamento’. There are machines, apparently, so I might not even have to queue. What is this country coming to??
Bene allora, must get on. There’s a party at Bug’s petting zoo this afternoon and I’ll want to look my best, which means shaving, at least.
Alla prossima settimana.
eBook of the Week, ‘A Cagliari ci sono i fenicotteri’, £4.99
This week’s half-price eBook of the Week offer is A1/2-level ‘A Cagliari ci sono i fenicotteri‘.
(Too easy for you? No worries! We’ve reorganised our ebook catalog by level, from the easiest to the hardest. Find something more challenging by following these links: A1 | A1/A2 | A2 | A2/B1 | B1 | B1/B2 | B2 | B2/C1 | C1 | C1/C2 | C2 )
As with last week’s eBook of the Week offer, we only published ‘A Cagliari ci sono i fenicotteri‘ last summer, but sales were slow. Don’t let that put you off, though. It was June, and who studies Italian in June?
But ‘A Cagliari ci sono i fenicotteri‘ is an entertaining and readable story for elementary-level students of Italian, of which there appear to be many. So we figured it would be worth promoting again.
That said, elementary-level language students tend to fixate on grammar and long lists of new vocabulary, ignoring reading and listening practice. If that sounds like you, then hold up a second!
Reading and listening to Italian AT YOUR LEVEL is a great way to improve your Italian comprehension skills – which you will of course need in the future – but it’s also a huge help in consolidating the grammar and unfamiliar words you’ll encounter elsewhere. Plus, it’s much more fun than memorising stuff! Below you’ll find a link to a free sample chapter. Why not give reading in and listening to Italian a try?
And for higher level students? There’s no promotion this week, but the audio for the ENTIRE STORY of ‘A Cagliari ci sono i fenicotteri‘ is available online, and can be listened to without buying the ebook itself. That would be good Italian listening practice for students at any level, no matter how advanced! You’ll find the link to the online audio on the new A1/A2 catalog page:
A1 | A1/A2 | A2 | A2/B1 | B1 | B1/B2 | B2 | B2/C1 | C1 | C1/C2 | C2 )
and in the free sample chapter .pdf, linked to below.
Twelve-year-old Gianna wakes up in Sardinia’s beautiful seaside capital for the last time. Today her family is moving to Milan, where her mum will take an important new job. They’ll live in a larger flat! Gianna will go to a new school! She’ll make new friends! But she’s leaving behind the city she loves, where she’s lived her whole life…
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- 5 grammar/comprehension exercises
- brief Italian/English glossaries of ‘difficult’ terms
- Suitable for students at any level
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Remember, this week ‘A Cagliari ci sono i fenicotteri‘ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!
Buy A Cagliari ci sono i fenicotteri, just £4.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf)
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