The Scars of the Erasure_web

Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 162162 THE SCARS OF THE ERASUREOne of the important methodological differences between the surveyHealth and Health Care in Slovenia and the semi-structured interviews whichhampers the comparison is that survey participants were offered a list of di -seases and health conditions to choose from, unlike the erased people, whomentioned these themselves and often neglected those health problems thatthey deemed less important. For example, asked whether he had suffered froma disease since the erasure, Dario answered, “Yes, a few minor ones,” but withoutdwelling on it further; many others gave similar answers. Moreover, an overallimpression is that the interviewees underestimated illness symptoms.The next important obstacle arises from the fact that erased people hadmuch greater difficulty accessing the health system than other Slovenian residents(see Table 2 and Table 3 in this essay and Lipovec Čebron 2007a, 70–75),so either their health problems frequently remained undiagnosed by official healthcare institutions, or only the most stubborn chronic diseases were diagnosed. Accordingly,almost 46.57 percent of illnesses among erased people do not havean official diagnosis (in the table above, these are marked ND). This almost perfectbalance between illnesses and diseases is illustrative, particularly when weknow that the majority of psychological difficulties also remain undiagnosed.If we leave aside for a moment these methodological differences, it is possibleto conclude from the data in the table above that the prevalence of three patholo -gical conditions among the erased people corresponds to the average in the generalpopulation (stroke, cancer, chronic anxiety). On the other hand, the national averagewithin five categories is either higher (chronic bronchitis, obstructive lung disease,emphysema and diabetes) or much higher (back-pain or other chronic injuries ofthe back; high blood pressure and allergies) than the average in the erased group.By contrast, diseases in the categories “lasting injury or damage as a resultof an accident,” “asthma,” “liver problems,” “chronic depression” and “other psychologicalproblems” occur more frequently or much more frequently in erasedpeople than in the general population, particularly psychological problems.Thirteen categories of health problems established in the erased people cannotbe compared, because we do not have data on the prevalence of these conditionsamong the general population in Slovenia. In connection with this, we shoulddraw attention to a significant share of diseases in three categories: i.e., problemswith the spine and limbs (13.55 percent), lung diseases (13.55 percent), and coronaryand vascular diseases (8.47 percent), as well as digestive diseases (6.77 percent).Add to this the high percentage of psychological problems (38.98 percent)and the picture of the health condition of the erased people largely corresponds tothe conclusion of Aleksander Doplihar, the founder of the Pro Bono Out-patient Clinicfor People without Health Insurance, who has daily contacts with the erased people:The erased people I treated primarily suffer from lung diseases, quite a number ofthem suffering from tuberculosis. Other frequent problems are serious damage tothe circulatory system, both the heart and the vascular system, and also legs and