The article compared utilisation of comprehensive (primarily consultations) and safety-net (primarily hospitalisation) services, COVID-19 case rates, and mortality between Colombian citizens and Venezuelan migrants in Colombia across 60 municipalities.

The study finds contrasting patterns between comprehensive and safety net services, suggesting that the complementary systems behaved independently. Colombians used vastly more comprehensive services than Venezuelans, while for safety-net services the gap in utilisation was smaller and narrowed.

Additional policy changes are recommended to further integrate Venezuelans into the Colombian health care system.

This research was supported by the Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) Programme.