How Structural Compensation Facilitates Health Care for the Homeless. A Comparative View on Four European Union Member States

Ursula Trummer, Sonja Novak-Zezula, Mariola Chrzanowska, Christos Michalakelis, Roido Mitoula, Adam Rybka, Snejana Sulima and Monika Zielińska-Sitkiewicz
Additional contact information
Ursula Trummer: Center for Health and Migration, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Sonja Novak-Zezula: Center for Health and Migration, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Mariola Chrzanowska: Department of Econometrics and Statistics, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
Christos Michalakelis: Department of Informatics and Telematics, Harokopio University of Athens, 17778 Tavros, Athens, Greece
Roido Mitoula: School of Environment Geography and Applied Economics, Harokopio University of Athens, 17676 Kallithea, Attiki, Greece
Adam Rybka: Department of Town Planning and Architecture, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, Rzeszow University of Technology, 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland
Snejana Sulima: Faculty of Law, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, 700506 Iasi, Romania
Monika Zielińska-Sitkiewicz: Department of Econometrics and Statistics, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-16

Abstract: There is robust evidence that homelessness and the associated life conditions of a homeless person may cause and exacerbate a wide range of health problems, while healthcare for the homeless is simultaneously limited in accessibility, availability, and appropriateness. This article investigates legal frameworks of health care provision, existing knowledge on numbers of homeless to be considered, and current means of health care provision for four EU countries with different economic and public health background: Austria, Greece, Poland, and Romania. National experts investigated the respective regulations and practices in place with desk research. The results show differences in national frameworks of inclusion into health care provision and knowledge on the number of people experiencing homelessness, but high similarity when it comes to main actors of actual health care provision for homeless populations. In all included countries, despite their differences in economic investments and universality of access to public health systems, it is mainly NGOs providing health care to those experiencing homelessness. This phenomenon fits into conceptual frameworks developed around service provision for vulnerable population groups, wherein it has been described as “structural compensation,” meaning that NGOs compensate a structural inappropriateness that can be observed within public health systems.

Keywords: health care; homeless; structural compensation; vulnerable groups; inequality in health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:9114-:d:457698

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