Officialization TOC
- Officialization 1: WTF comes next in Italy?
- Officialization 2: Apartment
- Officialization 3: Internet
- Officialization 4: Stay Permit, part I
- Officialization 5: Picking Courses
- Officialization 6: Stay Permit, part II
- Officialization 7: TV Tax
- Officialization 8: Stay Permit, part III
- Officialization 9: Residenzia
- Officialization 10: Health Insurance <– You are here
- Officialization 11: Thesis Registration
- Officialization 12: Stay Permit, part IV
Health Insurance
I paid for the Italian national health insurance for 2018 when I was first applying for my stay permit. Now that I received my stay permit, it was time to actually sign up for the insurance.
This is done at yet another government office, separate from the others, called the Agenzia Sanitaria. I received a copy of the form that said at the top of it “Azendia Provinciale per i Servizi Sanitari”, which I had to fill out from the Welcome Office at school. At the time, I didn’t understand that that phrase at the top of the form was the name of the office and the uni neglected to give me the full address of the office. Therefore, I had some trouble googling the location of the office, but I finally found it at Via S. Giovanni Bosco 6 in Rovereto.
Upon arrival, I found the Anagrafe Sanitaria in the Segreteria’s office on the left hand side. It’s good that I came right as they opened because the line grew very quickly behind me. Once I got to the window, the lady asked me for my documents:
- passport
- permesso di soggiorno (stay permit)
- proof of payment of health insurance (long top of a paper from the post office)
- codice fiscale
- iscrizione (proof of university enrollment)
- the name of a local general practitioner doctor that will become your main doctor (if you don’t know one, I think they provide you with some options, but it’s better to find someone who speaks English ahead of time)
I had to scramble for some of the items, but since I have taken to carrying all of my documents to every government office every time, I ended up having everything with me. As for the name of the doctor, I got that from a friend who had been to one that apparently speaks English. I have never been there before, so I hope that when I have to go for my thyroxine medication, it all goes smoothly.
However, as the lady started to look up my information from the codice fiscale, something went wrong with her system. She started talking to her colleague, who pulled in another colleague, and another, and soon, everyone was all in a flurry, trying to help this lady figure out her system. I didn’t fully understand what was going on, but apparently the problem had to do with the fact that I was born in the Soviet Union (before its collapse), but my passport and documents all say I was born in Russia. Somehow, this impeded the creation of some sort of internal code or something like that. A frustrating 15 minutes later, they had finally figured out how to reconcile the difference. They gave me a certificate confirming my enrollment and a paper with the doctor’s hours, and I was done. However, because of this slowdown, I missed my last train to work before the 2 hour break in trains.
I would like to point out that it has been 5 months out of the 12 that I intend to stay here, and I am only now finishing some of this process for myself, and I still have follow ups to do with my husband. By the way, my permesso di soggiorno was actually expedited so 5 months should actually be considered faster than normal.
kaleidoescape 