ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES OF THE RURAL MIGRANT WORKERS IN ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE SERVICE IN URBAN CHINA ? A CASE OF NANJING

Sammanfattning: Since China's economic reform in 1979, millions of rural migrant workers have moved into urban areas attracted by the booming economy. Due to socio-economic, institutional and historical reasons, these migrant workers become urban underclass and engage in dangerous, dirty and difficult jobs. Meanwhile, they suffer from discrimination in almost every aspect of city lives. Lacking of knowledge in healthcare and due to less access to urban healthcare service, the migrants are vulnerable to health problems. However, the government has acted by improving the treatment of the migrant workers and launched series of regulations. The purpose of this thesis paper is to explore the achievements and challenges of the rural migrant workers in access to urban healthcare service, taking Nanjing as an example. Based on the content analysis of relative regulations and the legislations as well as the data collection from the interview with the respondents of the Rural Migrant Health School, and the migrant workers, several factors that influence the migrants' health status and their access to urban healthcare service are highlighted. As a result, there is a summary of the achievements and the challenges of the rural migrant workers in access to healthcare service in urban China. There are also possible solutions given at the end of the paper.