Italian Health Care has always been "socialized".

Today, after 50 years of such system, you
1. go to a private dentist if you don't want to wait two months.
2. do the same for echographies, radiographies, most exams that are somewhat more than a blood test.
3. I you can afford, you end up using private hospitals for surgery.
4. Possibly, you end up getting a privateh health insurance.

"Public" healthcare, as state-run health care is usually referred to, here, is simply, generally speaking, less efficient and lower quality. That's an undeniable fact, here. The worst cases, the most negative extremes that end up on the news, are just unbelievably scary. You read of rats running in corridors in some of the worse hospitals. And, it is not unfrequent, expecially in southern hospitals, to see several patients sleeping in the corridors (with rats?!) due to lack of rooms.

Understandably, people is quite unhappy with state-run health care. While some defend its importance, I personally find that's mostly due to mere ideology.

There are exceptions. Some excellent doctors in state-run hospitals give great reputations to them, while some private institutions are there simply to profit illegally on ignorant patients. Still, generally, it is the opposite, and quite obviously so.