If this applies to you, there is currently no system in place allowing you to make the payment online, meaning you’ll need to visit your local ASL office to find out the price, make a trip to the post office to pay by postal order, and then go back then to the ASL office to complete your registration.īut even if you don’t need to pay and can skip the post office, two visits to the ASL may still be necessary because visiting in person may be the only way to get accurate information on the documents you’ll need, and how much you’ll have to pay. (Find more information on who needs to pay below.) The process is made more complicated because many of Italy’s foreign residents need to pay a yearly contribution towards health insurance. This is something several of The Local’s readers have asked about recently, as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic makes trekking from office to office a potential health hazard. You need to go in person to the ASL, or Agenzia Sanitaria Locale (local health authority) office.Īnd not only is it impossible to apply without going in person, for many foreigners in Italy the process takes not just one but two trips to the ASL, as well as a stop at the post office – even during a pandemic. The tessera sanitaria however can’t be applied for online. READ ALSO: Italian bureaucracy: What is a SPID and how do you get one?
Italy is currently trying to move more government services online, a long-overdue process which has been made all the more urgent by the coronavirus pandemic.
You receive your personal tessera sanitaria when you register with the Italian National Health Service (SSN – Servizio Sanitario Nazionale), something most people resident in the country should do, although there are valid reasons why some foreign residents may not. But it’s also one that Italy’s foreign residents frequently report having trouble with: the tessera sanitaria, or Italian health insurance card. It’s one of the first and most important pieces of bureaucracy you’ll need to deal with when you move to Italy.