[The right to health and the "constitutionally necessary expenditure".]

The paper deals with the choices of allocating financial resources to protect health; it describes the evolution of the jurisprudence of the Italian Constitutional Court, which has developed the notion of "constitutionally necessary expenditure" and further criteria on the control of the legislature's action. Points for reflection are drawn from the recent pandemic experience that brought to light the regional gaps, the sometimes ineffective role of the State and the silent process of dismantling health welfare that occurred in the first two decades of the second millennium.