Asylee Access to Refugee Health Screenings: Refugee Health Screenings Should Be Urgently Granted to Asylees in Washington State

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

This research is a policy analysis assessing the importance of health screenings for newly granted asylees in Washington State as both a tool for surveillance and a form of preventative care. This paper will go further and make preliminary recommendations that health screenings be granted to asylees as soon as they make a claim for asylum. This paper will begin by giving an overview of U.S. asylum policy. It will then outline asylee eligibility for medical assistance. Later, it will describe the refugee health screening. This paper will also include a summary of stakeholder opinions surrounding refugee health screening, its purpose, and their perception of its importance. It will then provide examples of past and present interventions that addressed issues around asylee access to health screenings. Finally, I will make recommendations and discuss how these recommendations may play out today, as well as ways we may learn from the past.