Patient Migration as a Response to the Regulation of sub-national Health-care Budgets

Since 2007, Italian regions with healthcare budget deficits above a specific total funding threshold are obliged to commit to a Financial Recovery Plan (FRP). We employ a quasi-experimental strategy to assess the consequences of FRPs on access to healthcare, by identifying their impact on patient migration. We find a 24% to 31% increase in patient migration as a result of the strictest implementation of FRPs. Our empirical analysis shows that migration is affected by regional availability of both capital and labour inputs.