Healthcare is available to all citizens in a countrywide, public-private system. The public portion is provided by the National Health Service or in Italian, the SSN, which stands for Servizio Sanitario Nazionale. Anyone may simply walk into a public hospital, in Italian- ospedale, for most common problems. The emergency number is 118. All prescriptions must be written by a physician and their healthcare must work well because Italians have a history of long life, 80.3 years in 2012.
