Turkey ranks low in expenses on health

The report shows that total health spending accounted for 5.7 percent of GDP in Turkey in 2005, which is the latest year available. The average expenditure across OECD countries is 8.9 percent. According to the report, health spending tends to rise with income and, as Turkey has the lowest GDP per capita among OECD countries, it is not surprising that it also has the lowest health spending per capita with a spending of $618 purchasing power parity in 2005 compared with the OECD average of $3000 in 2007. The United States came out on top, as the country that spends the most on health as a share of its economy with 16 percent of its GDP allocated to health in 2007.

Despite Turkey’s overall low expenditure figures, results show that public spending in Turkey has increased significantly over the past five years, up from 63 percent in 2000. Another positive development in Turkey’s is the largest gains in life expectancy between 1960-2007 with an overall increase in longevity of over 23 years, rapidly narrowing the gap with the average across OECD countries. According to the report, countries have enjoyed large gains in life expectancy over the past decade thanks to improvements in living conditions, public health interventions and progress in medical care. The infant morality rate in Turkey has fallen and is down from 190 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1960 to 20.7 deaths in 2007.