Inequities in immigrants’ access to health care services: disentangling potential barriers
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess whether immigrants suffer from unequal access to health care services, that add to prevailing socioeconomic barriers to care.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a uniquely rich Italian health survey, the authors estimate the correlation between immigrant status and the probability of accessing health services, conditional on a rich set of individual and territorial characteristics.
Findings
Results show that foreigners are more likely to contact emergency services and less likely to visit specialist doctors and use preventive care. Similar results hold for second-generation immigrants.
Originality/value
The authors discuss the sources of observed inequities and suggest tentative policy implications to promote equal access.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Carlo Devillanova initiated this research while supervising Cora Signorotto’s dissertation, “Immigrants’ access to and use of health care services: The case of Italy.” The authors thank Cora for insightful discussions, as well as Ross MacMillan, Simone Ghislandi, Damiano Canale and seminar participants at Doremee (Dondena, Bocconi University), Eupha 2012, and SIE 2012 for helpful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.
Citation
Devillanova, C. and Frattini, T. (2016), "Inequities in immigrants’ access to health care services: disentangling potential barriers", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 37 No. 7, pp. 1191-1208. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-08-2015-0114
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited