Transformation of Green Card Program for the Poor: One Step Further to Universal Health Care Coverage in Turkey

Abstract

Since January 2012, Turkish government started to implement a mandatory general health insurance law. The Social Security Institution (SSI) coverage which has been 86% in 2012 was expected to be 100% after this reform instead has declined to 82% in 2013. On the other hand, as Turkish Green Card Program - a state social scheme to ensure the provision of health services for the poor - was abolished and transferred from Ministry of Health to SSI, approximately 9 million people have been subject to income audit in order to be classified as eligible to pay premiums themselves and non-eligible ones for which the state will pay the premiums. In this regard; this poster presents this transformation and gives its current status in terms of contribution to Universal Health Coverage in Turkey. Publications of SSI, World Bank Reports and online articles are utilized. The recent available data shows that 82% of the population is under the coverage of SSI. %2 of the population corresponds to the groups which are out of SSI coverage according to Law 5510, Article 60. Remaining population corresponds to 12 million people subject to income audit. Approximately 62% of those could not pass income audit and their premiums are paid by the state. Since 2012 there are increasing number of people taking income audit and have the capacity to pay premiums. It is also noteworthy to state that there were 8,865,470 people under Green Card scheme whereas after the transfer of Green Card to SSI; 11,357,306 people applied for the income audit in 2012, this reached to 12,266,043 people at the beginning of 2014. Findings show that as Green Card Scheme brought under SSI, coverage has been made available to all eligible people in a systematic and just way thus contributed the extent of coverage in Turkey.