Health care provision for illegal immigrants: should public health be concerned?

European countries are becoming multicultural societies, and national health systems have progressively adapted following their political and historical peculiarities. Overall, sick, immigrants with regularised administrative status are able to use health services in equal terms than people from the host country. Legal immigrants have a poorer health status and worse living conditions than the host population, and consequently, may even have a higher utilisation of health services, although that is not always the case. Ilegal immigrants are, in principle, not entitled to receive medical care from public services, except in cases of emergencies, but it is unclear where and how they receive medical care in cases of need. In some countries “alternative health care providers” such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) oVer medical care, often supported with public funds. But again, we do not know whether those alternative health care providers are used when they exist, and to what extent they are preferred to other providers. The objective of this study was to test whether illegal immigrants are eVectively able to obtain medical treatment when ill.