Access to Healthcare for Vulnerable and Minority Populations: A Global Perspective

Dear Colleagues,

As the composition of societies changes, questions of social diversity and equal access to healthcare for vulnerable and minority populations are attracting increasing attention. In recent years, processes of international migration, globalization, aging of societies, widening income gaps, as well as increased sensibility concerning the healthcare needs of diverse social groups, have led to an increased focus on questions of discrimination in healthcare and equal access to healthcare services for all. Nevertheless, despite this greater engagement with the topic, empirical research on access to healthcare still remains insufficient.

Belonging to a vulnerable group can constitute a relevant obstacle to accessing healthcare. Limitation of access to healthcare for these populations raises medico–ethical considerations and has negative consequences on the health outcomes of individual patients. For example, non-heteronormative persons, such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and non-binary individuals, report substantial discrimination and disparities regarding their access to healthcare as a result of healthcare providers’ moral convictions and attitudes; difficulties communicating with healthcare professionals; or institutional and internalized homophobia. Another vulnerable minority group that experiences barriers to healthcare is migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, for whom obstacles can include inadequate legal entitlements, language barriers, or patients’ socioeconomic status.

Discrimination in access to healthcare can function on two levels: individual and structural. Individual discrimination occurs on the level of personal encounters, i.e., between a healthcare professional and an individual patient. Here, obstacles may have various contexts, e.g., they can stem from communication issues or the presence of racism or homophobia. In contrast, structural inequalities may arise through normative frameworks that disadvantage particular minority groups. In such cases, international institutions or states establish specific laws, regulations, or procedures that either permit or prohibit equal access to health services.

This Special Issue aims to collect research articles concerning the question of equal access to healthcare for various minority populations, including (but not limited to) ethnic, cultural, or religious minorities; sexual and gender minorities; children; older or disabled persons; prisoners, etc. The Guest Editors welcome contributions from across the globe that not only examine structural and individual barriers to access to healthcare for these vulnerable groups, but also provide best-practice examples of facilitating access to healthcare for them. The Special Issue aims to include papers from a wide range of academic perspectives including Public Health, Healthcare Ethics, Health Systems Research, and Global Health Research.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Prof. Dr. Florian Steger
Dr. Marcin Orzechowski
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• healthcare access
• healthcare disparities
• equity
• minority and vulnerable populations
• ethics
• public health
• healthcare services