Health cover and the SSN
Health coveragePrivate cover for the visa, then switch to the SSNYou cannot get the visa without health cover. Once you are here you can enrol voluntarily in the SSN, Italy’s national health service: you get a tessera sanitaria, a family doctor (medico di base), and care that is essentially free. Students have a rate of their own.
Step by step
- 1
Before you fly: buy a private policy
The visa requires cover of at least €30,000 for medical care and repatriation. Generali, Allianz Care and the short student policies are the usual choices. Buy enough to cover your first 3 months here; after that, move to the SSN.
- 2
Decide which route to take
SSN: costs more, covers everything. Your medico di base and the public hospitals are essentially free, and it is the cover most readily accepted when you renew your permit. Private: cheaper, but most policies reimburse after the fact, so in A&E you pay first. Almost every student staying longer than a year chooses the SSN.
- 3
Pay with an F24
Pay the annual voluntary enrolment fee with an F24 Semplificato — at a bank, at the post office, or online. The counter gives you the causale and the codes. Keep the receipt.
Paying in January gets you the most: the same money covers the whole calendar year. Pay in September and only 4 months are left.
- 4
Register at the ASST and pick a medico di base
Take the full set of papers to the Scelta e revoca desk. You are registered on the spot and given a temporary slip; the plastic tessera sanitaria is posted later to the address you registered. At the same desk you pick a medico di base from the list.
Choose on how close the surgery is and when it is open — you can change doctor whenever you like.
Where people get stuck
- !The voluntary SSN rate went up sharply after the 2024 budget law: about €700 a year for the student category, and more for other foreign residents. Confirm this year’s figure at the ASST desk before you pay.
- !The SSN year is the calendar year, not 12 months from the day you pay. Arrive mid-year and you lose part of the first one — that is normal, not a mistake.
- !You can join the SSN without a registered residenza, but then the card has nowhere to go. Give your university’s address, or ask to collect it at the desk.
- !For an emergency call 112, the single national emergency number. For something that is not an emergency but your doctor’s surgery is shut, there is the Guardia medica (continuità assistenziale).
- !Dentistry and glasses fall largely outside the SSN: you pay for them yourself, or take out a supplementary policy.