How to get your Tessera Sanitaria healthcare card?

Once you had your Permesso di Soggiorno, Codice Fiscale and Carta d'Identita, you can begin to obtain your Tessera Sanitaria health care card.

Registering for Healthcare 

Registration is handled at a local level by the Local Health Service (Azienda Sanitaria Locale, ASL) which issues a social security number and a health card (Tessera Sanitaria). This entitles the holder to low or no-cost treatment. Hospital services are provided free and a 75 percent reduction is given on the cost of outpatient and some dental treatment.

In order to register for the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (National Health Service) it is necessary to have four documents:

1. Permesso di Soggiorno (Residence Permit) from the local Commune

2. Codice Fiscale from  the Agenzia del'Entrate

3. Carta d'Identita from the Anagrafe office

4. Stato di Famiglia from the local Commune (if you want to register other family members)

Bring all these documents to the Agenzie Sanitarie Locali (ASL) office. Here you will need to select a family doctor (it pays to have researched and chosen one previously). After registration, you will be given temporary documents allowing you to visit the doctor and access health services, while you wait for your Tessera Sanitaria (Health Card) to arrive. The Tessera Sanitaria card is a very neat, plastic card, the same size as a credit card, which also has your Codice Fiscale stamped on it.

For all information and answers to other questions about health card, it is possible to visit the website "Progetto Tessera Sanitaria" or to contact the toll free number 800.030.070. 


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