Comparative analysis of health systems and health indicators of European Union countries and Turkey

The process of Turkey‟s membership of European Union started in the year of 1959 with Turkey‟s application to partnership of European Economic Community and with sign to partnership agreement in the year of 1963. As it can seen Turkey-EU relationship is much older than relationship of EU and currently member of European Union. Although this fact this condition of protracted engagement between Turkey and EU continue in order to Turkeys goal which reaching to the level of contemporary civilization. In this context the role of health services to build a prosperous society is obvious. Since the year of 2004 affiliation of Chech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Crotia and especially Cyprus with EU deepen the Turkish government‟s and Turkish people‟s suspicion concerning used double standard by EU. Nowadays, the ultimate goal of all countiries is to provide their citizens a higher quality of life and to build a prosperous society by carrying out the sustainable development. And these goals can be achieved only by investing in human capital. The method of investment in human capital goes through education services along with high-quality, reachable, inclusive and adequate health services. Development is not only an economic term. Development –in addition to economic growth (in addition to increase in per capita income)- includes improvement on economic, social, cultural and political form in a country. In this sense; health indicators such as maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate and life expectancy at birth are being accepted to be the most primary criteria which determine the development level of countries. During Turkey's nomination process for eu, it may not told that there is enough acedemic study on health systems and health sectors of Turkey and EU countries. In this study which has been prepared to fulfil this lack, healthcare system of Turkey and EU members are examined and along with basic health indicators such as life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, quality of patient care; also indicators regarding health economy such as real capital savings of healthcare sectors and healthcare expenses are comparatively analysed. v Key Words: Health, Health Services, Health Economics, Turkey, European Union, Primary health indicators.