Il Sistema Sanitaria

If you're curious how to get a presciption filled in Italy, read on.

We don't have healthcare in the states this year.  COBRA for me or Gibbs were both ridiculously priced (~$2,000/mo), and if we were going to be abroad for the year anyway, it made sense to just get travelers medical insurance (less than $900 for both of us for the whole 10 months).  We 'should' be covered if anything comes up. It worked great 16 years ago for the whole family, but I'm older now and I have daily maintenance medicine.

I needed more hypothyroid pills just a couple of weeks into our stay here, and I had not yet completed the Permesso di Soggiorno application that gives me access to getting an Italian doctor through the public system.  Luckily, I had already found a docotor through the private system for my swimming pool membership.

I braced myself for another bumpy ride as I reached out to my new doctor.  I shared my latest thyroid level test (yay for Mychart!), and he emailed me back right away with a prescription and a request to use the farmacia that rents him his medical office space.

Gibbs and I happened to be walking nearby just a couple of days later, so I pulled my prescription up on my phone.  It seemed awfully informal, but we don't have a printer and so I figured if this is the first of a series of attempts, at least I should learn something. I greeted the farmacista and showed him my phone.  He said thanks, leaned over and grabbed a box, set it on the counter and said, that will be due sessanta.  My first two thoughts were:  

1) What? No waiting?  No, come back in a couple of hours?  Don't you want to file this prescription somewhere?  Don't I need some kind of account? and

2) Uh, oh!  The honeymoon is over.  I'm paying unsheltered medical prices now: 260€.  I guess I'll submit it and see what I can get reimbursed.

It turns out it really was that fast and easy, and two months of hypothyroid pills cost 2.60€, I guess I just added the due CENTO sessanta in my head.  Here's the receipt: