The Scars of the Erasure_web

Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 152152 THE SCARS OF THE ERASURE1. A description of health problems (these were the typical questions:“Have you had any health problems since the time of the erasure?” or“Have you fallen ill at any point in time since the erasure?” or similar).The interviewers mainly sought to establish the potential presence ofan illness. However, it was the erased people themselves who often initiatedhealth-related talk by describing the type and progress of their illness,although they usually emphasized only more serious and chronichealth problems, while neglecting lesser ones.2. Health insurance since the time of erasure until the present date (thetypical questions were as follows: “What about health insurance afterthe erasure?” or “How were you insured?” and the like). The interviewerssought to obtain detailed information about health insurance and to establishfor how long they lived without it, what consequences they sufferedand what methods they employed to resolve the situation.3. The method of treating health problems (the typical questions were thefollowing: “Have you ever needed health care assistance?” “What treatmentdid you have?” “How did you resolve this situation?” and the like).The interviewers mainly concentrated on the issue of access to healthcare institutions, while they rarely inquired about the type, progress orsuccess of the treatment. Similarly, they did not devote attention to theself-treatment practices and experiences with traditional or complementarymedicines, but some erased people nevertheless expounded onthese issues. 1In this essay we will analyze all three categories of topics. One chapter isdedicated to each category. In the first chapter, “Illness and the Erasure – A Bio -graphical Disruption ‘Squared,’” we use qualitative and quantitative approachesto analyze the erased people’s health problems, while presenting the rate of occurrenceof individual illnesses and frequent health risks among the erased people.In the second chapter, “Between the Construct of the Uninsured Person andInaccessibility of Health Insurance,” we analyze the erased people’s access tohealth insurance against the backdrop of the changes in the Slovenian healthsystem after 1991. In the third and last chapter, “Hurdle Race: the Erased Peoplein Health Care Institutions,” we will analyze the experiences of erased peoplewhen seeking professional help and alternative routes to health care treatments.1 In the Peace Institute research study, the sequence of questions was not the same as presented above, because theinterviewers primarily sought to reconstruct the process of obtaining legal status. They usually first asked if the respondenthad lost health insurance and how long he/she lived without it, then if he/she fell ill at any time after theerasure, and finally inquired about their experiences with health care institutions.