EU: Sweden Must Provide Vulnerable EU Citizens with Subsidized Healthcare

The Swedish state is violating its international commitments to ensure everyone’s right to healthcare without discrimination. That is the opinion of the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) after reports that so-called vulnerable EU citizens have been denied access to healthcare on equal terms.

The ECSR is the body within the Council of Europe that monitors how member states comply with the European Social Charter. The Charter guarantees basic socio-economic rights such as the right to work, housing, health, education, and social security.

The complaint against the Swedish state was filed by Amnesty International and Doctors of the World. In their decision, they assert that the Swedish state is guilty of a serious human rights violation and discrimination against EU citizens without health insurance by denying them care or providing only unsubsidized necessary care.

Swedish Amnesty welcomes the decision.

– Amnesty welcomes the committee’s decision. The right to healthcare is a fundamental human right, and Sweden is obligated to provide care fairly to everyone residing here. That the Swedish state violates one of the most basic human rights for a particularly vulnerable group, already living under extremely difficult circumstances, is completely unacceptable and must be remedied immediately, says Anna Johansson, Secretary General of Amnesty International Sweden.

Roma

According to the ECSR, the Swedish state has committed three violations of the European Social Charter. Firstly, by violating the right to health when people were denied access to healthcare; secondly, by acting directly discriminatory when regions, through allegedly arbitrary decisions, made care differently accessible and charged different fees; and thirdly, by treating “vulnerable EU citizens” worse compared to other people living in “undocumented” circumstances.

The state is also said to have subjected the Roma minority to indirect discrimination based on ethnic affiliation, since the majority of those affected identify as Roma.

– This is about people, their health and lives. Both in their home countries and in the rest of Europe, vulnerable EU citizens have a long history of severe discrimination due to their ethnicity and socio-economic situation. When individuals from this group come to Sweden to try to improve their situation, the Swedish state only worsens the discrimination. This must not happen in any country, especially not in a country like Sweden that claims to defend human rights, says Anna Johansson.

Demands Government Action

According to Johansson, their complaint is just the tip of the iceberg showing the Swedish state’s alleged systematic discrimination against vulnerable EU citizens. Now they demand the government act immediately and guarantee everyone in Sweden—including vulnerable EU citizens—access to healthcare.

To make this possible, they believe the government must initiate new legislation clarifying that all EU citizens in Sweden, regardless of the length of their stay or whether or not they have a European health insurance card, have the right to subsidized healthcare on at least the same terms as persons without a residence permit.

– We are seeing a development in Sweden and Europe where structural racism is worsening and where leading politicians are increasingly questioning and restricting fundamental human rights for people from other countries. That is why it is important for states like Sweden to be reminded of the significance of everyone’s social rights and to take their responsibility to realize this in practice. Human rights are not a choice but must be enjoyed by all people without discrimination, says Anna Johansson.