Disability Insurance

Spanning over two most important continents in the world, Asia and Europe; Turkey is a very diverse country. With a history of civilization going back as ancient as ten thousand years, the country becomes a treasure trove for history and cultural heritage. With its stunning sceneries, important landmarks and buildings and then the very warn hospitality of its people, Turkey makes one of the best holiday locations in the world. There is a full range of resorts and other activities available that will keep people of all ages entertained and happy in Turkey.

The unique influx of so many cultures and traditional values is what draws the rest of the world to Turkey. The complexity and intricacies of Turkey’s language, arts and handicrafts reflects the cultural influences from both Asian and European cultures. Turkey has evolved into a cosmopolitan nation with a unique combination of ideas and traditions adopted from Western, Asian and Arabic elements and refined to suit the Turkish ideology.

Until 2003, Turkey’s disability care system was centralized and run by its Ministry of Health. Then in 2003 a health reform program was introduced by the governing Justice and Development Party. This program was aimed at increasing the number of private disability care options in the country so that health care becomes easily accessible to each and every citizen of the country. As the ratio of private health provisions offered increased in comparison to the state offered facilities, health care became more widely available to a larger portion of the population.

Because of the long waiting queues and unsatisfactory service in the state-run disability facilities, many people turned to private health care during the last decade in Turkey. Private hospitals have given the people a chance to be treated with full attention and with a lesser waiting time. These private hospitals also have contracts with some medical and health insurance companies to help the patients in paying their bills. But as the competition from private health sector increased, the state run hospitals have also made an effort in order to attract patients to get treatment at a much lower price than that of a private hospital.

Turkey’s public expenditure in 2005 was only 7.6 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP); which is far below the average for a developing country. But this expenditure has still increased from what it was in the early 2000s; previously the public sources contributed almost 63 percent to its total health expenditure. But the situation has improved a lot now. A 2006 report suggests that there was one doctor for every 700 people, one nurse for every 580 people and one hospital bed for every 380 people at the time of the survey.

The health care system is more developed in the western-half of the country. The rural population does not have so many options when it comes to health care facilities. A 2005 survey showed that though the private health care industry has made huge progress, but still less than five percent of the urban population go for private health insurance; seventy-five percent of its health expenditures were still covered by cash payments rather than health insurance plans.