Health workers' perceptions of access to care for children and pregnant women with precarious immigration status

Health as a right or a privilege

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4594337
AutoresKarine Vanthuyne (0000-0003-3936-5907, University of Ottawa), Francesca Meloni (0000-0002-9121-9985, Centre de Santé et de Services Sociaux de la Montagne), Mónica Ruiz-Casares (0000-0001-5090-8349, Centre de Santé et de Services Sociaux de la Montagne), C Rousseau (0000-0002-6533-6774, Centre de Santé et de Services Sociaux de la Montagne), Alexandra Ricard-Guay (McGill University)
Año2013
Volumen93
Páginas78-85
Fecha de publicación2013-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial Science & Medicine (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347
EditorialElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.06.008
PMID23906124
OpenAlexW2133369921
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas28
Referencias citadas34

The Canadian government's recent cuts to healthcare coverage for refugee claimants has rekindled the debate in Canada about what medical services should be provided to individuals with precarious immigration status, and who should pay for these services. This article further explores this debate, focussing on the perceptions of healthcare workers in Montreal, a large multiethnic Canadian city. In April-June 2010, an online survey was conducted to assess how clinicians, administrators, and support staff in Montreal contend with the ethical and professional dilemmas raised by the issue of access to healthcare services for pregnant women and children who are partially or completely uninsured. Drawing on qualitative analysis of answers (n = 237) to three open-ended survey questions, we identify the discursive frameworks that our respondents mobilized when arguing for, or against, universal access to healthcare for uninsured patients. In doing so, we highlight how their positions relate to their self-evaluations of Canada's socioeconomic situation, as well as their ideological representations of, and sense of social connection to, precarious status immigrants. Interestingly, while abstract values lead some healthcare workers to perceive uninsured immigrants as "deserving" of universal access to healthcare, negative perceptions of these migrants, coupled with pragmatic considerations, pushed most workers to view the uninsured as "underserving" of free care. For a majority of our respondents, the right to healthcare of precarious status immigrants has become a "privilege", that as taxpayers, they are increasingly less willing to contribute to. We conclude by arguing for a reconsideration of access to healthcare as a right, and offer recommendations to move in this direction

Health care · Immigration · Perception · Political science · Privilege (computing · Public health · Right to health · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Medicine · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Health and Trauma · Nursing · Psychology