A comparison of the health status and health care utilization patterns between foreigners and the national population in Spain: New evidence from the Spanish National Health Survey
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Abstract
The increasing proportion of immigrants in Spanish society is placing pressure on
the National Health Care System to accommodate the needs of this population group
while keeping costs under control. In the year 2000, a law was approved in Spain according
to which all people, regardless of their nationality, are entitled to use health care
services under the same conditions as Spanish citizens, provided that they are registered
in the local population census. However, empirical evidence about differences in health
status and health care utilization between the immigrant and the Spanish population
is insufficient. This paper uses the 2003 and 2006 Spanish National Health Surveys
to explore the existence of inequalities in health and in the access to health services
for the immigrant population living in Spain, relative to that of Spaniards. Our results
show that there are different patterns in the level of health and the medical care
use between the national and the foreign population in Spain: while immigrants' self-reported
health relative to that of the Spanish population depends upon individual nationality,
all immigrants, regardless of their nationality, seem to face barriers of entry to
specialized care. Further research is needed to understand the nature of these barriers
in order to design more effective health policies.