Migration, equality and access to health care services

Equity with respect to health and access of health care should be a major political issue in the contemporary European Community (EC). Most health care systems aim at ensuring the population's good health care according to the individuals' needs, regardless of their social position, gender, race or ethnicity. The Swedish Health Care Act of 1982 states that the goal for health care is to promote “good health and care on equal terms for the entire population”. But is this the reality? Does the underprivileged part of the EC population have access, without prejudice, to the care their health status would demand?

To be able to answer these questions, it is necessary to examine what factors decide health, and health care. One of the most influential and persistent associations in public health is between social position and mortality/morbidity, meaning that persons with low social positions have an increased risk of morbidity and premature mortality, compared with those with a high social position. In Sweden, persons with low social position have lower primary health care utilisation than expected, with regard to their actual health status.1

Another determinant of health is minority …