Offline: The Turkish paradox

Abstract

Recall the headlines: “Demonstrations spread throughout Turkey” (IHT, June 3); “Turkey expands violent reaction to street unrest: hits medics and media” (The New York Times, June 17); “Turkish liberals turn their backs on Erdogan” (The New York Times, June 20). This was the inauspicious backdrop to a Ministerial Conference on Universal Health Coverage, held last week in Istanbul jointly between Turkey's Ministry of Health, Imperial College London, Medipol University, and The Lancet. Was it better to engage or disengage? I think we—together with Rifat Atun, who led the evaluation of Turkey's health reforms; Julio Frenk; Ala Alwan and Zsuzsanna Jakab, Regional Directors of WHO; Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director at the World Bank; and ministers and officials from over 30 countries—were glad we went. Because what Turkey has achieved with its Health Transformation Programme is nothing short of extraordinary. But no-one could ignore recent events. Turkey's democratic transition to universal health coverage“But now, because we've fallen under the spell of the West, we've forgotten our own stories.”Orhan Pamuk, Snow (2004) Full-Text PDF Universal health coverage in Turkey: enhancement of equityTurkey has successfully introduced health system changes and provided its citizens with the right to health to achieve universal health coverage, which helped to address inequities in financing, health service access, and health outcomes. We trace the trajectory of health system reforms in Turkey, with a particular emphasis on 2003–13, which coincides with the Health Transformation Program (HTP). The HTP rapidly expanded health insurance coverage and access to health-care services for all citizens, especially the poorest population groups, to achieve universal health coverage. Full-Text PDF