The determinants of health care utilization in Turkey: A micro data analysis

Health expenses have an important burden on countries' budget. Therefore offering these services with widespread, low cost and preventive methods is among the economic goals of many countries. From the economic point of view, this subject can be evaluated as demand based. Regarding to economic literature, although this subject has been investigated in detail in many countries, there is no extensive study about Turkey's healthcare use. To investigate this issue, ''Health Surveys'' TUİK for 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 years have been used. This research has been developed considering the "Anderson's Behavioral Model" (1968). Regarding to the model to estimate healthcare demand (Primary healthcare, outpatient, inpatient healthcare services and teeth services) "Logit" and Negative Binomial" statistical models have been applied. The findings of the analysis and modelling show that the most important factor influencing healthcare services is the need factor. Moreover, enabling and predisposing factors are the second and third factors which effect the healthcare demand. Furthermore, according to the results, the rate of utilization of healthcate services in individuals vary according to age, gender, marital status, region of residence, education level, health insurance status, employment status, income level, health status and physical discomfort factors. Key Words Health Economy, Healthcare Demand, Logit Model, Negative Binomial Model, Behavioral Model.