In a recent report released on Thursday, the Turkish Statistical Institute revealed a significant uptick in Türkiye's total health expenditure, reaching an astounding 606 billion 835 million TRY in 2022, marking a staggering 71.5% increase from the previous year.

The breakdown of the figures indicates that general government health expenditure surged to 463 billion 516 million TRY, reflecting a robust 65.4% rise. Meanwhile, the private sector's health expenditure witnessed an impressive spike of 94.4%, totaling an estimated 143 billion 319 million TRY.

A noteworthy revelation is that a substantial 76.4% of the total health expenditure was provided by the general government budget. Delving deeper into the specifics, the report highlights the diverse contributors, with the Social Security Institution leading at 44.2%, followed by the central government at 31.6%, households at 18.5%, insurance companies at 2.7%, and non-profit organizations and local government contributing at smaller percentages.

Further analysis of the report discloses that current health expenditure experienced a notable surge of 68.0%, reaching 555 billion 944 million TRY. Additionally, investments in health expenditures reached 50 billion 891 million TRY, marking an impressive 121.1% increase.

Hospitals maintained their dominance in the distribution of total health expenditure, accounting for 50.3%, followed by retail sale and other medical goods providers at 21.7%, and providers of ambulatory health care at 10.6%.

The per capita health expenditure also witnessed a significant rise, reaching 7 thousand 141 TRY, marking a 69.8% increase from the previous year's 4 thousand 206 TRY.

While total health expenditure accounted for 4.0% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, a slight decrease from the 4.9% reported in 2021, the ratio of current health expenditure to GDP was calculated at 3.7% for 2022, compared to 4.6% in the previous year.

Notably, households contributed significantly to the out-of-pocket health expenditures, reaching 112 billion 18 million TRY, constituting 18.5% of the total health expenditure. (ILKHA)