The poster illustrates the additional costs to the health system that can be incurred when entitlement is limited to emergency care. Such restrictions place people beyond the reach of prevention programmes and obstruct their access to care in the early stages of illness, when treatment tends to be cheaper and more effective. The main argument for improving access to health care for marginalised groups has always been based on human rights and principles of equity. However, in recent years more attention has been paid to the economic costs of limiting coverage for these groups. These arguments are not new: the need for universal, comprehensive health care coverage has been a guiding principle of public health policy for at least half a century. This principle applies just as much to marginalised groups within a society as it does to whole countries. Despite this, irregular migrants, those who cannot afford health insurance, and those (such as Roma) who may lack the necessary documentation, are still routinely excluded from all but emergency care in Europe and beyond. Such policies are often defended on economic grounds, but as the poster illustrates, they may increase rather than decrease health system costs.
This poster illustrates some results from the Thematic Study “Cost analysis of health care provision for migrants and ethnic minorities”, designed and carried out by the Center for Health and Migration in the framework of the project “Fostering health provision for migrants, the Roma, and other vulnerable groups”, led by the International Organization for Migration (IOM, Migration Health Division, Regional Office in Brussels). The study was carried out in 2014-2015, in close cooperation with IOM as well as primary health care and hospital service providers in four EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Italy, and Spain. Researchers from the Center also participated in the sub-project on ‘Economic arguments’ within the COST Action IS1103 ‘ADAPT’ (Adapting European health services to diversity).
Full explaination here.