Health services for migrant workers: Results from Taiwan's Health Service Delivery System

There is a growing trend of migrant workers to replace local labors in developed and developing countries. Countries recruit workers oversea to reduce the cost of labor or to fill the vacancy of disadvantageous jobs. Various factors may cause foreign workers' accessibility of primary care.

This study employs Ambulatory Care Sensitive Hospitalization as a proxy to evaluate migrant workers' accessibility of primary care in Southern Taiwan. This study analyzes inpatient claims from Kao-Ping area of Taiwan's National Health Insurance in 2006. Only blue-collared workers were included in this study.

There are 33,091 blue-collared foreign workers in Kao-Ping area in 2006. A set of 13 quality indicators were used to identify cases who were admitted to hospital with a preventable hospitalization condition.

In 2006, a total of 697 inpatient claims were filed and 10 claims were categories as Ambulatory Care Sensitivity Hospitalization. Of 10 claims, 6 perforated appendix claims and 4 acute bronchitis claims were identified. The rate of perforated appendix admission without adjusted with age and gender was 1.3 cases per 1000 admissions. Compared with United States 301.7 cases per 1000 admission, the perforated appendix admission were significant lower (P < 0.001). The initial findings suggest that the lower rate may be attributed by the efforts made by Taiwan's health care delivery system.

All foreign workers are entitled National Health Insurance. In addition, Department of Health boosts multilingual health service environment and health promotion at workplace. The experience of Taiwan's health care delivery can be continuously observed.