Doctors in Imola and the surrounding Emilia-Romagna region, home to 4 million people, treat more than 15,000 patients at home, including 40 percent of all those with cancer. Indisputably, many French and Italians would be the first to admit that their health-care systems are far from perfect. This summer, when personnel from France's state-run hospitals took their usual vacations, some patients being admitted to emergency wards had to wait as much as 10 hours on stretchers before being examined. Italy's tax-financed system falls short of its goal to provide prompt service, from dental checkups to knee surgery, to all. For every tax dollar the state spends, Italians shell out 38 cents of their own for some kinds of specialized care that are more prompt or reliable.
Statistics point to a clear effect on Italy's overall health.
In part because of intensive efforts to provide prenatal and postnatal care to all mothers, the country's infant mortality rate has fallen to 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. The U.S. figure is 7.2 deaths.