The legacy of planning in Italian public health policies

This article aims to analyse the policies of planning in the health sector, framing the welfare system more generally. The aim is to show how planning documents and policies had a long-term effect on the most important of the reforms carried out in Italy: the creation of the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (S.S.N.) in 1978. Consideration will be given to the Giolitti and Pieraccini Plans and to the study that inspired their new approach to health: the Schema di Piano Sanitario Nazionale (1964–1978), drafted by Giovanni Berlinguer, whose innovations are clearly visible in relation to the existing health system in Italy in the early years of the Republic.