Medical benefits to safeguard coeliac consumers and their impact on the gluten-free product market: the case of Italy.

In Italy coeliac suffers have the right to obtain free provision of gluten-free products against National Health Service prescription-coupons. The survey on the various ways the law is applied in the different Italian regions showed that these patients don’t enjoy uniform social security treatment through the country. Furthermore it was observed that the healthcare system has affected the gluten-free product market. On examining the prices of these foodstuffs, it was found that they were more costly than their standard counterparts (from 68 to 595%). Differences were also found between the prices of gluten-free products bought at different shopping venues (from 10 to 330%). In order to encourage competition between shopping venues and bring down the prices of gluten-free foodstuffs, it seems necessary to allow the large-scale retail trade to deliver gluten-free products against National Health Service prescription-coupons in all the Italian regions.