The Politics of Healthcare Reform in Turkey

This book explores the transformation in the healthcare system in Turkey since 2003, which has been portrayed as a benchmark for building universal healthcare systems in emerging market economies. Focussing on healthcare politics in an under-researched developing country context, it fills a significant lacuna in existing scholarship. This study answers these questions: What were the political dynamics that enabled the introduction of healthcare reform in Turkey? What political conflicts did the reform generate? How and to whose benefit have these conflicts been resolved? Drawing on qualitative interviews with a diverse set of actors, Ylmaz explores the actors' subjective interpretations of the reform, the discourses and strategies they used to influence the reform, and the changing healthcare politics scene. He demonstrates that the reform has been a complex political process within which actors negotiated whether and to what extent healthcare remains a citizenship right or a commodity. This book will appeal to students and scholars of social policy, politics, health policy, public health and sociology.

Describes the historical legacy of Turkey's health care system against the background of Turkish politics Examines the Health Transformation Programme within the context of healthcare reforms in selected developing countries in Latin America, Southern Europe and East Asia Presents healthcare reform as a political process within which social values and the interests of a diverse set of global and domestic actors interact

Autorentext
Volkan Ylmaz is Assistant Professor of Social Policy at Boaziçi University, Turkey.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: The New Politics of Healthcare in Turkey.- Chapter 2: The Politics of Healthcare: A Critical Review of the Literature.- Chapter 3: Healthcare and Politics in Turkish History.- Chapter 4: The Health Transformation Programme in Turkey Within the Context of Healthcare Reforms in Other Emerging Market Economies.- Chapter 5: The Impact of the World Bank on Healthcare Reform in Turkey.- Chapter 6: The AK Party and the Politics of Healthcare in Turkey in the Last Decade.- Chapter 7: The Turkish Medical Association as an Actor in the Politics of Healthcare.- Chapter 8: Private Healthcare Provider Organisations as New Actors in the Politics of Healthcare.- Chapter 9: Conclusion.-