Türkiye’de Katastrofik Sağlık Harcamaları ve Bu Harcamaları Belirleyen Faktörler: 2002-2014 Dönemi

When households must pay fees or co-payments for health care, the amount can be so high in relation to their income that it results in “financial catastrophe” for the individual or the household. Such high expenditure can mean that people should cut down on necessities such as food and clothing, or are unable to pay for their children’s education. Catastrophic heath expenditure occurs when a household’s total out-of-pocket health payments equal or exceed 40% of household’s capacity to pay or non-subsistence spending. In this study, it is aimed to find out general situation of catastrophic health expenditures and determine the factors that affect these expenditures of households in the period between 2002 and 2014 in Turkey. By using micro data set of Household Budget Survey, published by Turkish Statistical Institute, it is found that households incur in catastrophe is averagely 0.49% and households became poor after paying for health services is averagely 0.22% in the period between 2002 and 2014. The logistic regression results indicate that probability to make catastrophic health expenditure is determined by these factors: age, marital status, disability status, household size, access to healthcare services, income level, employment situation, educational level, gender, insurance status, and place of residence.