ReviewHealth policy and planning2021
Policy exclusion or confusion? Perspectives on universal health coverage for migrants and refugees in South Africa.
Review in Health policy and planning, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Access Barriers to Healthcare for Undocumented Migrants in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Qualitative Systematic Review.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2025Pooled it
- Research gaps on universal health coverage in the South African context and other low and middle-income countries; putting things into perspective: a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Health policy and health system experiences of forcibly displaced populations: a scoping review of qualitative evidence.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- From policy to practice and vice versa: a cross-sectional study of healthcare workers' perspectives on safeguarding public health service access for displaced populations in Iran.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- "Where will we find them?" They are just like droppings : Perceptions of health care workers regarding access to health promotion among urban migrants in Botswana.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Infrastructure-health nexus in Brazil: a scoping review.Global health research and policy · 2025Article
- Upholding the Right to Health in Contexts of Displacement: A Whole-of-Route Policy Analysis in South Africa, Kenya, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- An analysis of migrant health policies in Iran.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- Is universal health coverage really better? Unintended consequences of the 2019 Amendment of the National Health Insurance Act for humanitarian sojourners in South Korea.International journal for equity in health · 2025Article
- Medical xenophobia and healthcare exclusion of refugees and migrants in Africa: A scoping review.Journal of migration and health · 2025Review
- Contested and nervous spaces: exploring the environment of healthcare provision for international migrants in the Gauteng province of South Africa.Global health action · 2024Article
- Forgotten and ignored: making digital health work for migrant population in Africa.Oxford open digital health · 2024Article
- Association between the location of social medical insurance and social integration among China's elderly rural migrants: a nationwide cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Social determinants of the non-use of the explicit health guarantees plan (the GES plan).BMC health services research · 2023Article
- "My young life, finished already?": a qualitative study of embedded social stressors and their effects on mental health of low-wage male migrant workers in Singapore.Globalization and health · 2023Article
- An analysis of migration and implications for health in government policy of South Africa.International journal for equity in health · 2023Review
- A discourse and content analysis of representation in the mainstream media of the South African National Health Insurance policy from 2011 to 2019.BMC public health · 2023Review
- Article
- Universal health coverage evolution, ongoing trend, and future challenge: A conceptual and historical policy review.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Health service behaviors of migrants: A conceptual framework.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Notwithstanding the promise of the inclusivity of universal health coverage (UHC), the integration of migrants and refugees into host countries' health systems remains elusive and contested. In South Africa, there is insufficient scholarly attention on UHC, migrants and refugees, given the country's strategic importance in Africa and the envisaged implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) system. In this paper, a social exclusion conceptual framework is used to explore whether South African legislation, health policies and perspectives or actions of health policy actors facilitate UHC for migrants and refugees or exacerbate their exclusion. We combined a review of legislation and policies since 1994, with semi-structured interviews with 18 key informants from government, academia, civil society organizations and a United Nations organization. We used thematic analysis to identify themes and sub-themes from the qualitative data. The South African Constitution and the National Health Act facilitate UHC, while the Immigration Act and the 2019 NHI Bill make the legal status of migrants the most significant determinant of healthcare access. This legislative disjuncture is exacerbated by variations in content, interpretation and/or implementation of policies at the provincial level. Resource constraints in the public health sector contribute to the perceived dysfunctionality of the public healthcare system, which affects the financial classification, quality of care and access for all public sector patients. However, migrants and refugees bear the brunt of the reported dysfunctionality, in addition to experiences of medical xenophobia. These issues need to be addressed to ensure that South Africa's quest for UHC expressed through the NHI system is realized.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.