Cost of exclusion from healthcare : the case of migrants in an irregular situation : summary

The right to health is a basic social right. However, its understanding and application differs across the European Union (EU) Member States, which results in different healthcare services being offered to migrants in an irregular situation. This European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) summary looks into the potential costs of providing migrants in an irregular situation with timely access to health screening and treatment, compared to providing medical treatment only in emergency cases. It presents a model to calculate the costs for two medical conditions: hypertension and prenatal care. FRA applied the model to three EU Member States: Germany, Greece and Sweden. Although results must be interpreted with caution, the testing shows that providing access to regular preventive healthcare for migrants in an irregular situation would be cost-saving for healthcare systems. Treating a condition only when it becomes an emergency not only endangers the health of a patient, but also results in a greater economic burden to healthcare systems.