Sistemi sanitari e immigrazione: percorsi di analisi comparata

The book 'Health systems and immigration: A comparative analysis', edited by Ginevra Cerrina Feroni investigates how health systems in Europe function in relation to the migration phenomenon. The study includes countries adopting different models of health systems: Anglo-Saxon (United Kingdom), Bismarckian (France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands), Southern European (Italy, Spain, and Greece) Eastern European (Hungary), and Scandinavian (Sweden and Denmark). In terms of financing, these countries essentially belong to the Beveridgean national health service (NHS) and the Bismarckian social health insurance (SHI) types of system. While SHI systems (France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Hungary) are largely financed out of social contributions and coverage is linked to labour market participation, NHS systems (United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Greece, Denmark, and Sweden) are mainly financed out of general taxation committed to provide universal coverage[1]. Central to the study is the role played by the right to health in the countries’ constitutional systems. This analytical perspective is deemed necessary in order to understand how social rights are conceived and how these rights relate to, and interact with, the main policy tools for migrant integration. What emerges from the analysis is a composite picture of the health systems that differ on the basis of the protection they offer to citizens and foreigners, the latter including European citizens, non-EU citizens legally residing in the territory, refugees, holders of subsidiary protection, asylum seekers, and irregular migrants (i.e. non-EU citizens without a residence permit).