Turkey: Health spending sees 17.5% y-o-y rise in 2018

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Health expenditures posted an annual increase of 17.5% to 165.2 billion Turkish liras ($28.5 billion) in 2018, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) revealed on Tuesday.

"The proportion of current health expenditure to total health expenditure was 93.1% for 2017 and 93.8% for 2018," the TurkStat said.

It added the ratio of government health expenditure-to-total health expenditure was 77.5% in 2018, down from 78% in 2017.

"The proportion of total health expenditure to GDP was 4.4% last year. This ratio for general government was 3.4%," it indicated.

It also reported that the number of hospitals in Turkey surged by 11,065 year-on-year to reach 80,701 last year, of which 65,373 were public hospitals while 15,328 were private sector hospitals.

The institute said out of pocket health expenditures made by households for treatment, pharmaceuticals, etc. reached to 28.7 billion liras with an increase of 19.4% in 2018.

The proportion of household out of pocket health expenditure to total health expenditure was 17.3% last year.

"Health spending per capita was 1,751 Turkish liras ($480) in 2017 and then it reached to 2,030 liras ($430) with an increase of 15.9% in 2018," it said.

Health expenditure statistics were presented according to financing agents and service providers.