Costs of illness: Example of cancer in Turkey

Due to the studies of the Ministry of Health, considering a potential situation in which no precautions are taken against the cancer and a systematic control program isn't applied, the direct treatment costs in 2030 will reach a size that can't be met by the Ministry of Health budget. The major aim of this study is to analyze economic costs of cancer. The study consists of four parts. In the first chapter, the relationship between health and economy is analyzed. In the second chapter, the organizational structure of the health sector in Turkey is examined. In the third chapter, the literature on the cost of diseases studies is examined. In the last chapter, the policies of striving with cancer in Turkey and the economic costs of cancer are discussed. The economic costs of diseases are categorized into two parts: direct costs and indirect costs. Due to the limited data set, monetary costs are restricted to drug expenditures made by Social Security Intuition. In the study the indirect costs of cancer have been discussed in two different approaches. According to the first approach cancer expenditures lead to loss of output by reducing investments. This approach has been analyzed by employing computable general equilibrium model. According to the second approach cancer leads to output loss by decreasing labor productivity. The last approach has been analyzed by employing econometric simulations. According to the first approach, on the condition that the war against cancer succeeds, the gross domestic product will increase by 0.01 %. According to the second cancer reduces labor productivity by 0.01%. However output loss is proved to be more than productivity .