Navigating Healthcare Services and Resources

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Session Description

The papers on this panel all consider factors that contribute to individuals’ ability to navigate government and social services. Haeder and Xu use a survey of more than 8000 Americans regarding their experience navigating provider networks. The authors focus specifically on the role of provider directories in mediating access to timely healthcare. Yaver investigates how the statutory design of the Employment Retirement and Income Security Act (ERISA) influence the range of options available to employed patients when facing health insurance disputes. Scheidweiler and Su investigate the access of Venezuelan refugees in Brazil, comparing the access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for vulnerable asylum seekers (women, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities) in refugee camps in the borderlands of Brazil to the resettlement sites in Southern Brazil. They find that interiorization provides greater chances for employability and livelihoods, but few mechanisms for continued healthcare communication, leaving refugees at the mercy of systems and services that are often unknown to them and at great vulnerability to healthcare mis- or disinformation. Lopez Ortega and Rincon draw on the largest worldwide survey on sexual violence to investigate the capacity of victims to detect and report sexual violence, considering how detection and reporting are affected by factors such as partisanship, the identity of the perpetrator, and the type of sexual violence experienced. The four papers on this panel all provide important insights about how inequalities are exacerbated through administrative burdens, misinformation, and other factors.

Sub Unit

• Division 48: Health Politics & Health Policy

Individual Presentations

• Consumer Experiences with Provider Directories and Support for Federal Action - Wendy Xu, The Ohio State University; Simon F. Haeder, Texas A&M University

• ERISA: Teaching an Old Law New Tricks to Expand Health Care Access - Miranda Elyse Yaver, University of Pittsburgh

• Interiorization and Healthcare Access of Venezuelan Refugees in Brazil - Gerson Scheidweiler, York University; Yvonne Su, York University

• Shades of Sexual Violence: How Partisanship Affects Detection and Reporting - Alberto Lopez Ortega, VU Amsterdam; Leire Rincon

Chair

• Scott L. Greer University of Michigan

Discussants

• Maria Livaudais California State University East Bay

• Lucia Vitale University of California, Santa Cruz