Gerontocracy and Cronyism in the Italian National Health System

Gerontocracy, the centralization of political power in elderlies, is often a consequence of demographic crises. In particular gerontocracy paves to way to self-perpetuating cronyism, which represents a relevant hurdle against progress in societies. Unfortunately, gerontocratic societies are also prone to suffer from cronyistic health systems. In this manuscript, I dissect evidences supporting the cronyistic state of the Italian health system, their causes oand their dismal consequences on both immediate services to the citizenship and long-term sustainability of the system itself. I finally advocate an urgent reform of selective criteria that focus on objective meritocracy and the introduction of robust term limits.