The evaluation of health costs in Turkey pre and post the health reformation program and its comparison with the OECD countries

As a fast growing sector, health sector has a highly great significance in economy. This fast growing sector is gradually getting involved in the market relations. In this case, a need to analyse more deeply the health expenditures by means of economic analysis methods comes out. As of 2003, Health Reformation Program in Turkey has commenced. While setting the goals of Health Reformation Program, the concerning aims of health finance were determined, as well. The main objective of the policy of health reformation is to make it possible for an individual or all people to have access to health while cutting down on the ever increasing expenditures in health sector and increasing the productivity. In this study, exchange of health expenditure data with aggregate, public and private items pre and post health reformation program between 1999 and 2014 has been examined. This study has also been conducted for two chosen service providers, which are hospital and retailer sale, and other medical suppliers. Furthermore, by taking into account the aggregate, public and private health payment shares in Turkey GDE, it has been determined how much Turkey has allocated from its GDE for the pertaining expense. In addition to this, a comparison has been made between the ratios of certain OECD countries' health expenses and GNP's, and of Turkey's health expenses and GNP's. As a conclusion, it has been observed that health reformation programme has made active and useful contributions to health costs, that it has followed true policies in order to achieve its aims and that public health expenses have increased. As for the examined services providers, public and private sector providers have also increased. A situation has emerged in which overall health expenditures have been publicized but service providers have been privatized. In terms of service providers, it can be recommended that more policies regarding public should be developed and it can turn out that the study of these groups need to be deepened. It is thought that as a developing country, Turkey can catch up with other OECD countries if it continues to grow with these policies in the long run. KEY WORDS: GDE, health costs share in GNP, THE, TPHE, OECD, Health Reformation Programme