Access to healthcare

Relevance/Result

Access to healthcare is an extremely relevant indicator of integration. Many barriers can impede access, such as a general lack of knowledge about health institutions, linguistic barriers or a lack of connections. This indicator primarily examines impeded access to medical and dental care due to financial reasons. The lack of access to dental care is of particular interest as this type of service is in most cases paid for by patients. This is in contrast to general medical care, which is reimbursed by the basic health insurance.

Note: On the German and French version of this page, the tables have been updated with the latest data. Graphs and texts will be updated shortly.

In 2019, overall, a statistically significant difference between the population with a migration background and the population without a migration background could be observed in the percentage of people who went without access to dental care (4% compared with 2%). The first generation has a rate twice as high as the second or subsequent generation (5% versus 2.5%). There is no statistical difference between the second generation and the population without a migration background.

As far as medical care was concerned, the difference between the population with a migration background and that without a migration background is statistically significant (1% versus 0.4%).

Trends over time

From 2015 to 2019, the share of the population who went without medical or dental care due to financial reasons remained stable, regardless of migration status.

Major region

The major regions for which results for the two population groups - with and without migration background - are available, they tend to show significant differences with regard to deprivation in dental care for financial reasons. These differences are only significant in the region of North-West Switzerland t (more than 4% versus 1.3%) and in the Geneva Lake region (8% versus 5%).

With regard to deprivation of medical care, there are only significant differences between the populations without and with a migration background in Espace Mittelland.

Definitions
Methodologies

Percentage of people who went without dental or medical care due to financial reasons.

Following changes to the survey framework and improvements in the weighting model, results from 2014 on can no longer be directly compared with those from previous years (series break).

At the request of Eurostat the questions regarding lack of access to healthcare were revised in 2015. The main change is that persons are now questioned about the necessity of medical (or dental) treatment prior to being asked if they have always been able to have access to the necessary examinations or treatment. This means that from 2015, only people who said they really needed an examination or treatment and who did not have access to such care were asked for the main reason for not consulting. As previously, when the main reason is financial, the person is considered to be subject to a lack of access to healthcare.

You can access the indicators in one of the following ways

All indicators

Some 68 indicators describe the current situation and changes in the integration of the population with a migration background and/or of foreign nationals in Switzerland in eleven areas of life in our society.

Key indicators

34 key indicators provide an overview of the progress made on the journey towards integration and the state of integration of the population with a migration background. If this information is lacking, the population is shown by nationality, and where this variable is available, the country of birth.