BACKGROUND PAPER - The cost of providing or denying access to healthcare for undocumented migrants

Do States actually « save money » when limiting or not providing any possibility of covered access to healthcare for undocumented migrants?

 

While there are strong human rights and public health arguments calling for providing equitable access to healthcare for undocumented migrants, economical arguments can reinforce these. The economic argument is very important as the main decision makers as regards access to healthcare are often not the health providers or the health administrations but people from the financial administrations.

 

There are many common discourses on the cost of healthcare access of undocumented migrants, which are more ideological than evidence-based. They are also based on the simplistic vision that one health problem of an undocumented migrant which has not been treated is one less problem to deal with and to pay for, in the sense that undocumented migrants are supposed to leave the country. The reality is completely different.

 

While some undocumented migrants may effectively leave the country, many others cannot leave the country, for practical or legal reasons: the question regarding their healthcare access therefore remains intact.

 

Not many studies focus on the costs linked to the denial or lack of access to healthcare but some studies show this link undoubtedly exists.