Out-of-pocket health expenditures in Turkey in the aftermath of the reforms
This study aims to perform the analysis for Turkish case and track use of healthcare services as well as expenditures by the households in a time frame spanning about ten years, from 2003, when the reforms have started, to 2013, most recent year for which micro level data is available. This being the primary aim of the proposed research, there also is a secondary objective. Turkish reform was interesting in that it replaced a system where physicians had their own private practices with one in which hospitals became main service providers. In the new system physicians are more attached to the hospitals and less independent. In the meantime pharmaceutical drug prices fell down but they became easier to achieve. Using detailed micro level expenditure data which provides type of healthcare service paid for, it attempts to measure whether and how this affected payments to physicians, hospitals and drugs.