title: 'Health transformation programme' in Turkey: an assessment.
abstract: The aim of this study is to assess the 'Health Transformation Programme' (HTP) in Turkey announced in 2003. This assessment has been made according to the ultimate performance goals of a health care system, such as improvement in health status, financial risk protection and satisfaction with health care. This study provides a brief history of health policy since 1980, when the Turkish health care system began to transform with the introduction of both structural adjustment and market-oriented reform policy. The main aim of these reforms was increasing efficiency. Reform proposals of the 1990s focused on the introduction of a general health insurance (GHI) system, decentralization, introduction of a family medicine scheme, purchaser-provider split, contracting-out, quasi-markets and improvement of management information systems. Like the reform proposals of the 1990s, HTP has eight components, the major ones being a new role for the Ministry of Health (MoH), introduction of a GHI system, reorganization of health service delivery and human resources development. No component of HTP has yet been sufficiently realized. Therefore, despite some improvements, Turkish people continue to face low health status and a low level of financial risk protection. More research needs to be done for the determination of satisfaction with health services.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Management, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ankara University, Turkey. gulbiyey@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Gulbiye Yenimahalleli
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Yasar
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014421:Turkey