HIV Care Services Offered to Foreign People Living with HIV in Advanced Countries

HIV Care Services Offered to Foreign People Living with HIV in Advanced Countries

In recent years, international organizations actively launch programs to lift the ban on foreign people living with HIV (PLHIV) to cross borders. To comply with global trend, Taiwan also starts amending “HIV Infection Control and Patient Rights Protection Regulation” and implemented on 4thFebruary 2015, lifting the strict ban on foreign PLHIV to enter, stay, and reside. When countries gradually resolve the limitation to foreign PLHIV to cross borders, there follow the systematic problems of providing foreign PLHIV with medical care services. Simultaneously, whether foreign PLHIV can access HIV medical care resources in an affordable charge becomes an important factor to decide to study, work, or reside in a foreign nation. This article broadly researches restriction on PLHIV’s visa application, coverage of private insurance, national health insurance, national health services for foreigners, and copayments under different health service systems in several advanced countries, including United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, England and Japan, in order to understand there accessibility of HIV medical care resources to foreign PLHIV. In sum, since most advanced countries greatly restrict visa approval when people apply for long-term residence or demand a considerable amount of copayment when people seeking for medical care, medical care resources remain hard to access for foreign PLHIV. Therefore, it is recommended when PLHIV go abroad to study, work or reside, they shall understand the country’s related regulation in advance, and consider to purchase private insurance or bring drugs from their home country.