More and more professional health care workers meet migrants who are ‘illegal’ in The Netherlands. Part of this group of migrants are ex-asylum seekers, who have not returned to their country of origin but remained in The Netherlands. As a result the number of undocumented migrants is rising steadily. Since the Koppelingswet ( | As a result of the Linkage Act, undocumented migrants residing in The Netherlands are excluded from public collective benefits and services; e.g. financial support, housing and health insu-rance. They can only get healthcare services if they pay for it, which they often cannot. An exception is made in the situation of medical necessary care. Initially the practical interpretation of medical necessary care was assessed by the treating physi-cian. In recent years, the autonomy of physicians is under-mined by financial arguments. This makes it more and more difficult for undocumented migrants to be treated in hospitals due to the restrictions by hospital management. As a conse-quence, the medical necessary care to undocumented migrants runs the risk to be gradually narrowed down to urgent medical care. The Dutch government created a special fund, the Koppelings-fonds, for the treatment of undocumented migrants. > Next |
Linkage Act