With regard to cost containment, in August 2012 the national parliament passed a law aimed at curbing and rationalizing public expenditure (so called “spending review”). The law further promoted the prescription of generic drugs, cut the hospital bed ratio from four per 1,000 people to 3.7, and reduced the public financing of the SSN by €900 million in 2012, €1.8 billion in 2013, €2 billion in 2014, and €2.1 billion in 2015. In 2012, the government approved a decree (named after the then Minister of Health, Renato Balduzzi) to reorganize health care at the regional level, with the introduction of teams of primary health care professionals to ensure 24-hour coverage; to update health care tariffs; to restructure governance of hospitals and LHUs; to revise the list of reimbursable pharmaceuticals; and to introduce health technology assessment as a tool for renegotiating the price of less effective medicines. An evaluation of the decree’s outcomes is not yet available as its implementation is still in its early stages