News

	Press Releases
	Publications
	Global News Briefs
	Case Studies
	ERISA Calendar

Global

Employer Action Code: Analyze

General health insurance system established

A new social security and general health insurance law is expected to provide the Turkish population with basic health services. The changes will come into effect on October 1, 2008.

Key Details

The new system will have the following characteristics:

• The state Social Security Institution (SGK) will provide the entire Turkish population with a primary layer of national health coverage.

• Private health institutions will have the option to contract with the SGK instead of private health insurance (PHI) providers. Public health allowance limits relating to these contracts are expected to be low (between 10 to 20 percent of total private health institution costs), due to the system’s severe deficits.

• The private health institutions that contract through the SGK will be allowed to charge patients a maximum of 30 percent over public indemnity levels determined by the SGK.

• The new law also introduces complementary health insurance: PHI providers can write complementary PHI policies with the first layer of national coverage as a deductible.

Background

Turkey’s burgeoning insurance sector has enormous growth potential as more than half of the Turkish population of 70 million is under the age of 30, and as of 2007, only 1.8 percent of the population was covered under PHI.

September, 2008