Healthcare policy-making through the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility: A Policy Design Approach

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) has been a significant innovation in European Union (EU) governance and represents an opportunity to prioritize healthcare investments and reforms, among other policies. While much has been written about the EU post-pandemic, particularly regarding the potential for changing the economic paradigm and triggering substantial domestic policy changes, the present article sheds light on the RRF through a policy design approach. This approach allows to establish a mid-range analytical framework to assess the consistency, coherence, and congruence of the RRF within the context of the multi-level governance of healthcare. A policy design approach combines an examination of the EU policy strategy at the top with an analysis of national and regional capacities and implementation programs at the bottom. By focusing on the Italian case, we shed light on the opportunities and limitations of both the RRF and the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The design of both the RRF and NRPP reveals weaknesses that could hinder the success of the initiative.