Is There Migration-Related Inequity in Access to or in the Utilisation of Health Care in Germany?
Author InfoMonika Sander Abstract This paper analyses immigrants¿ access to health care and utilisation of health care services in Germany. Thereby, it is investigated if there is inequity in access to or in the utilisation of health care services due to a lack of language skills or due to a lack of information about the health care system (approximated by years since migration) among first- and secondgeneration immigrants. The data used are drawn from eleven waves of the SOEP (1995-2006). With regard to the probability to contact a physician (as a proxy for access), German language skills are found to have no significant influence for all groups of immigrants. The hypothesis of inequity in access to health care due to access barriers caused by a lack of German language skills is therefore not supported by the data. However, mother tongue language skills seem to be important for the contact probability of the first- and secondgeneration: Having only good or poor mother tongue language
