Migrants and access to health care in Costa Rica
Date
2021-03-22
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
As in most immigrant-receiving countries in the global North, countries in the South face challenges
regarding migrant access to social rights and the effect of migrants on the sustainability of the welfare
state. In the Latin American context, this holds especially for countries such as Costa Rica, which has
one of the strongest social policy regimes in the South and the highest (Nicaraguan) immigrant stock
in Latin America. Set in the context of Costa Rica, this paper assesses two views which seem hard to reconcile,
and, are common in the country. First, it is claimed that Nicaraguan migrants use public health
services disproportionately, thereby threatening the country’s welfare system. Second, pro-migrant
rights non-governmental organizations and academics are concerned, primarily based on qualitative
studies, that access to health services for Nicaraguan immigrants is limited, and that they are discriminated
based on nationality. This paper relies on administrative data and a unique data set representative
of Nicaraguan born individuals residing in Costa Rica to examine the validity of both these claims. We do
not find support for either. The incidence of migrant health care use is lower than their share in the population
and at the same time there is no evidence of discrimination in health care access for migrants
based on their nationality. The paper underlines the need for more informed migration debates.
2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
Description
Keywords
Migration, Healthcare, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Central America, Nutrition policy, Política de la salud, Migración, Salud
Citation
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X21000930?via%3Dihub