5.13 Health care for specific populations

Thursday, 05. May 2011, 1:05

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5.12 Complementary and alternative medicine

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6. Principal health reforms


Official statistical data on the ethnic composition of the population are not available. It is assumed that approximately 350 000 to 380 000 Roma live in Slovakia. The inclusion of this group is difficult due to their unfavourable social situation, racial prejudice and their long-term dependency on social benefits.

The National Action Plan of the Slovak Republic and the Decade of Roma population inclusion 2005–2015 have four areas of priority: education, employment, health and housing and three inter-related topics: poverty, discrimination and gender equality.

The health goals are as follows:

  • to create a verified database of health data and health inequalities between the Roma population and the majority population as well as among Roma communities, as a basis for effective health interventions;

  • to improve the access to health care for the Roma population and to increase their knowledge on health care provision;

  • to improve the reproductive health of the Roma population;

  • to improve the vaccination rate in the Roma population.