Accessing healthcare services as a precarious worker in Ireland

Abstract

The growth and the nature of precarious work has become an important subject of research on contemporary employment. Equally, there has been an increased interest among researchers in understanding the social consequences of precarious employment. There is an increasing awareness of the negative affect on health posed by precarious work. However, a relatively unexplored issue is the extent to which access to healthcare depends on the form of both precarious work and of healthcare provision in a specific nation state. This article explores the social implications of precarious work, with a focus on access to healthcare services in Ireland. 40 qualitative interviews were conducted with precarious workers living in Ireland that took place between July and October 2017.These were part of a broader study called the Social Implications of Precarious Work Project. A thematic analysis was conducted, which revealed the following: precarious employment often makes access to basic healthcare problematic, so that many are often unable to access essential medical treatment. On the one hand they are unable to access means-tested public services, but on the other hand cannot afford the cost of private treatment and private health insurance. This has negative consequences for workers’ health. Many precarious workers are pushed into relationships of dependency, creating new forms of social inheritance, since only some can access better healthcare by using family resources. For precarious workers who do not have this, inequality is further exacerbated.