From rights to reality: immigrants’ equal access to health care benefits

Mayra Feddersen , Pablo Muñoz, Constanza Salgado

December 1, 2025

Accepted August 2025
This article examines how Chile is fulfilling its constitutional obligation to guarantee access to healthcare for all inhabitants, including foreigners, in the context of significant migratory increases. The article also evaluates the existence of gaps in the quality of health care through the study of common procedures for all women: vaginal deliveries and cesarean sections. Using administrative records of hospital discharges, we document that since 2016, when undocumented migrants were legally classified as low-income and thus beneficiaries of the public health system, the country managed to expand and provide tertiary coverage to the undocumented migrant population. Nonetheless, we find differences in the care provided for deliveries and cesarean sections between foreign and national mothers, especially for women from Haiti.

Keywords:
right to health; immigrants; discrimination

How to Cite?

Our work is important, so we appreciate it if you cite the use of the code and figures available in this repository.

APA Citation

MIGRA, N. (2024). MIGRA Repository (Version 2.0.4) [Computer software].

BibTeX Citation

@software{MIGRA_Repositorio_MIGRA_2024,
  author = {MIGRA, NÚCLEO},
  month = may,
  title = {MIGRA Repository},
  version = {2.0.4},
  year = {2024}
}