Health status and access to healthcare for uninsured migrants in Germany

• Verfasst von: Kratzsch, Lukas [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Bozorgmehr, Kayvan [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Szecsenyi, Joachim [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Nöst, Stefan [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Health status and access to healthcare for uninsured migrants in Germany
• Titelzusatz: a qualitative study on the involvement of public authorities in nine cities
• Verf.angabe: Lukas Kratzsch, Kayvan Bozorgmehr, Joachim Szecsenyi and Stefan Nöst
• E-Jahr: 2022
• Jahr: 28 May 2022
• Umfang: 18 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 14.07.2022
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: International journal of environmental research and public health
• Ort Quelle: Basel : MDPI AG, 2004
• Jahr Quelle: 2022
• Band/Heft Quelle: 19(2022), 11, Artikel-ID 6613, Seite 1-18
• ISSN Quelle: 1660-4601
• DOI: doi:10.3390/ijerph19116613
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Sach-SW: EU citizens
• Sach-SW: Germany
• Sach-SW: health inequality
• Sach-SW: health services accessibility
• Sach-SW: health services research
• Sach-SW: irregular migrants
• Sach-SW: public authorities
• Sach-SW: qualitative research
• Sach-SW: transients and migrants
• Sach-SW: uninsured migrants
• K10plus-PPN: 1810210321

Abstract

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) regularly report data on their work with uninsured migrants (UM) within a (so-called) parallel health care system. The role and involvement of public authorities therein have yet been underrepresented in research. Our aim was to gain a better understanding of public authorities’ role in the parallel health care system and their view of the health situation of UM. We conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with 12 experts recruited by purposive sampling from local public health authorities (LPHAs), state-level public health authorities (SPHAs), and social services offices (SSO) in nine cities, recorded, transcribed, and subjected the data to qualitative content analysis. LPHAs are more often directly involved in providing medical services, while SSOs and SPHAs function as gatekeepers for access to social benefits, including health insurance, and in grant-funded projects. NGOs keep substituting for the lack of access to regular health care from public institutions, but even in settings with extended services, public authorities and NGOs have not been able to provide sufficient care through the parallel health care system: Experts report gaps in the provision of health care with respect to the depth and height of coverage, due to the fragmentation of services and (ostensible) resource scarcity. Our study highlights the necessity for universal access to regular health care to overcome the fragmentation of services and improve access to needed health care for UM in Germany.