Europe’s Forgotten Citizens – Exploring Poor Health Policy Implementation in Roma Communities in Galati

Abstract

The situation of the Roma population remains difficult. The differences between the Roma and the non Roma in Romania are deep. The focus of this article is on the Roma’s health. 80% of people with TB live in countries with a high number of Roma, leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to claim Europe has lost control over TB. In 2008, 38% of the working-age Roma in Romania had no health insurance. Although Roma problems are acknowledged, currently, policy initiatives are not working. This paper will help to solve the problem by using the perspectives of network learning and receptivity to change, which systematically analyse the effectiveness of interaction between social actors at the individual, group and organizational level. The success of health policy implementation is mixed. A success is the introduction of the Roma health mediator, whilst and a failure is the persistence of discretion at the local level linked with stereotyped beliefs regarding Romanies. The paper suggests that by adopting a more managerial perspective the features that delay policy implementation can be identified, especially the level and type of communication break down.