Financial Burden of Health Care Expenditures: Turkey
In this study, we examine whether and to what extent the health insurance system in Turkey provided adequate protection against high out of pocket expenditures in the period prior to "The Health Transformation Programme". Furthermore, we examine the distribution of out of pocket expenditur...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Tehran University of Medical Sciences
2012-03-01
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| Series: | Iranian Journal of Public Health |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/2603 |
| _version_ | 1818886714215628800 |
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| author | S Nur Sulku D Minbay Bernard |
| author_facet | S Nur Sulku D Minbay Bernard |
| author_sort | S Nur Sulku |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this study, we examine whether and to what extent the health insurance system in Turkey provided adequate protection against high out of pocket expenditures in the period prior to "The Health Transformation Programme". Furthermore, we examine the distribution of out of pocket expenditures by demographic characteristics, poverty status, health service type, access to health care and self-reported health status. We employ the 2002/03 National Household Health Expenditure Survey data to analyze financial burden of health care expenditure. Following the literature, we define high burdens as expenses above 10 and 20% of income. We find that 19% of the nonelderly population were living in families spending more than 10% of family income and that 14% of the nonelderly population were living in families spending more than 20% of family income on health care. Furthermore, the poor and those living in economically less developed regions had the greatest risk of high out of pocket burdens. The risk of high financial burdens varied by the type of insurance among the insured due to differences in benefits among the five separate public schemes that provided health insurance in the pre-reform period. Our results are robust to three alternative specifications of the burden measure and including elderly adults in the sample population. We see that prior to the reforms there were not adequate protection against high health expenditures. Our study provides a baseline against which policymakers can measure the success of the health care reform in terms of providing financial protection. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T16:25:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3cddd87866fb497da1711d9dcd4fd2ce |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2251-6085 2251-6093 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T16:25:43Z |
| publishDate | 2012-03-01 |
| publisher | Tehran University of Medical Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Iranian Journal of Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-3cddd87866fb497da1711d9dcd4fd2ce2022-12-21T20:14:21ZengTehran University of Medical SciencesIranian Journal of Public Health2251-60852251-60932012-03-01413Financial Burden of Health Care Expenditures: TurkeyS Nur Sulku0D Minbay Bernard1 In this study, we examine whether and to what extent the health insurance system in Turkey provided adequate protection against high out of pocket expenditures in the period prior to "The Health Transformation Programme". Furthermore, we examine the distribution of out of pocket expenditures by demographic characteristics, poverty status, health service type, access to health care and self-reported health status. We employ the 2002/03 National Household Health Expenditure Survey data to analyze financial burden of health care expenditure. Following the literature, we define high burdens as expenses above 10 and 20% of income. We find that 19% of the nonelderly population were living in families spending more than 10% of family income and that 14% of the nonelderly population were living in families spending more than 20% of family income on health care. Furthermore, the poor and those living in economically less developed regions had the greatest risk of high out of pocket burdens. The risk of high financial burdens varied by the type of insurance among the insured due to differences in benefits among the five separate public schemes that provided health insurance in the pre-reform period. Our results are robust to three alternative specifications of the burden measure and including elderly adults in the sample population. We see that prior to the reforms there were not adequate protection against high health expenditures. Our study provides a baseline against which policymakers can measure the success of the health care reform in terms of providing financial protection.https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/2603Out of Pocket expendituresFinancial burdenHealth care reformTurkey |
| spellingShingle | S Nur Sulku D Minbay Bernard Financial Burden of Health Care Expenditures: Turkey Iranian Journal of Public Health Out of Pocket expenditures Financial burden Health care reform Turkey |
| title | Financial Burden of Health Care Expenditures: Turkey |
| title_full | Financial Burden of Health Care Expenditures: Turkey |
| title_fullStr | Financial Burden of Health Care Expenditures: Turkey |
| title_full_unstemmed | Financial Burden of Health Care Expenditures: Turkey |
| title_short | Financial Burden of Health Care Expenditures: Turkey |
| title_sort | financial burden of health care expenditures turkey |
| topic | Out of Pocket expenditures Financial burden Health care reform Turkey |
| url | https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/2603 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT snursulku financialburdenofhealthcareexpendituresturkey AT dminbaybernard financialburdenofhealthcareexpendituresturkey |