Healthcare professions: doctors receive the highest pensions, with biologists and psychologists trailing behind.


Over the past ten years, Italian pensions have suffered a significant erosion of their purchasing power. The greatest loss occurred in 2023 and 2024, when inflation was very high and the revaluation method was more severe, not by brackets but by overall amounts. The most serious aspect is that this loss is not limited to two years, but rather a permanent reduction in pension income over time.
In particular, professional pensions were and remain among the lowest. Average pensions for professionals vary widely depending on the relevant pension fund, the type of profession, and the income earned during their working career. There is no single average amount for all professionals, but some significant differences can be identified, noting that professional pensions were and remain among the lowest.
Thus, the average gross annual pensions for engineers amount to 30,300 euros, for architects 19,617 euros, for surveyors 18,000, for veterinarians 10,000, for pharmacists 7,500, for biologists 4,300 and for psychologists 3,400.
On this front, the doctors' pension fund, Enpam, has put up a strong resistance, favoring inflationary recovery based on 75% up to 4 times the INPS minimum and 50% on the remaining amount, and activating a pension calculation system that is more favorable than the dry contributory system used by the other privatized funds.
Enpam applies two calculation methods: the more favorable indirect contributory system with immediate valorization (Civi), and also, in some limited cases, quota A. The calculation is based on contributions paid over time, revalued and multiplied by a conversion coefficient that varies based on retirement age. For those who began paying after 1996, the calculation is entirely contributory. For those who began paying before that, a mixed system is used, with both a salary and a contributory component.
The functioning of Civi, however, is based on a reconstruction starting from the contributions present in the healthcare contribution statement.
The pension is determined on the basis of the income of the entire professional career.
There are currently over 66,000 general practitioners. There are over 37,140 pensioners receiving their primary pension from the general practitioners' fund, earning pensions totaling €1,599,712,608 (56% of total benefits), with average annual gross payments of €50,500.
Among them are family doctors, private pediatricians, but also those responsible for continuity of care and contracted local emergency services, and some former 118 emergency medical services workers who have become dependent. The contributions flow directly from the health authorities, which deduct them at source.
The management also includes outpatient specialists and service medicine workers who have transitioned to an employee relationship while maintaining their social security status with Enpam. Today, everyone, both contracted and employed, has the same contribution rates. However, the management has historically ensured forward-looking contribution collections, allowing today's pensioners to benefit from adequate benefits. There are currently over 14,700 outpatient specialists. The number of ordinary pensioners for 2024 is 14,821, and the related amount paid is €363,826,878, corresponding to 12% of the total ordinary pensions of all Enpam schemes. The average annual amount of the new ordinary pensions paid by the management is approximately €44,800.
There are currently 474 external ad personam specialist doctors, and 749 external INPS-contracted doctors. The professional companies pursuant to art. 1, paragraph 39, Law 243/2004, which declared a turnover in 2024, are 1,894, and the beneficiaries of the contribution are 14,606.
The number of ordinary pensioners for 2024 is 2,191, and the related amount paid out is €34,765,964, which corresponds to 1% of the total amount of ordinary pensions across all Enpam schemes.
Since 2004, new external specialists, who are no longer paid directly by the National Health Service but by accredited facilities, have received a 2% contribution on their clients' turnover. Furthermore, in 2024, a 4% contribution was collected from members who benefit from the aforementioned 2% contribution.
There are currently approximately 217,000 self-employed doctors. The number of ordinary pensioners for 2024 is 66,987, and the related amount paid out is €394,876,450, corresponding to 14% of the total ordinary pensions of all Enpam funds. The average annual amount of the new ordinary pensions paid by the fund is approximately €19,000 (excluding all pension payments less than €500 per month). A self-employed professional who receives a €19,000 annual pension may be disappointed, as their primary source of income is Quota B. However, this figure is distorted by various factors. The first is that a proportional contribution on freelance income has existed in Enpam only since 1990 (for dentists since 1995). Furthermore, the contribution rates have always been varied and initially very low.
Consider that in the early years, the full rate was 12.5 percent, and only up to a limited income ceiling, while the reduced contribution was 2 percent for those with other pension assets. Past average pensions are therefore not predictive of future ones, which are expected to increase.
There are 365,318 members of the Quota A fund, including 7,695 students in their fifth year of their degree program. The number of ordinary pensioners for 2024 is 128,936, and the related amount paid out is €483,152,773, corresponding to 17% of the total ordinary pensions of all Enpam funds.
The average annual amount of the new ordinary pensions paid by the management is approximately €4,000. This pension, in this case, is truly modest. However, annual contributions have been modest, especially in the past, which have constituted a "sum" (the total contributions paid) for which the percentages used (the same ones used by INPS) result in low benefits. However, looking at the years of birth, it is clear that of these 15,000 pensioners with a prevalent Quota A pension, only 74 are over 70 years of age. Almost all the others are healthcare workers who have begun receiving this first Enpam pension while waiting to meet the requirements to receive a more substantial one from Enpam or INPS.
These are typically former self-employed workers who have not paid any other contributions (remember, Quota B did not exist before 1990) or who have taken advantage of the opportunity to withdraw other contributions paid to other ENPAM funds, forgoing the related pensions they would have been entitled to. Receiving a small ENPAM pension, which, in this case, always corresponds, proportionally, to a higher sum than the amount paid, generally does not reflect hardship. Evidence of this is provided by the number of ordinary pensioners who benefit from the INPS minimum supplement: 258 out of 140,000, or less than 0.25 percent.
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