The private clinic market - Italy

Private clinic refers to health care facilities, both for-profit and nonprofit, that are not owned by the government. These are usually funded by patients themselves or by insurance companies and are features, along with public facilities, of a large number of health care systems. In 2020, the global private clinic market was worth $4.7 trillion and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 6.7 percent to a peak of $7.4 trillion in 2027. Markets in the Asia-Pacific region are those for which the greatest growth is expected given the larger catchment area, growing concern about health conditions, and, consequently, increased spending in this regard. In Italy, there is a steady increase in private health care spending by the Italian population since, contrary to common opinion, it is not only wealthier people who resort to this type of infrastructure. Nowadays, private healthcare spending, in fact, is also part of the budgets of the low-income population. One factor driving people to use private clinics is certainly the higher incidence of chronic diseases that has begun to be seen in recent years: in fact, almost half of the population that uses the services offered by private clinics is suffering from such a disease. The private clinic market is particularly attractive especially when considering the high waiting times required to access services at public facilities. In addition, due to the high degree of specialization and research of some private facilities, an increasingly common phenomenon is medical tourism. On the Italian territory, the most established and recognized private hospital groups are the San Donato Group and San Raffaele Hospital both part of the Papiniano Spa holding company.