Health-care reform in Turkey: far from perfect.

In analysing the effects of the Turkish health reforms, we were careful to use reliable data from the Turkish Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS) 1993, 1998, 2003, and 2008; the Turkish Household and Budget Surveys (THBS) 2003–11 done annually by the Turkish Statistical Institution; and the health expenditure and health insurance coverage data from the Social Security Institution. We used WHO data for life expectancy in Turkey and European (E7) countries; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data for economic indicators; OECD Health data and World Bank data for health expenditures and health system performance of E7 countries; Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group estimates for maternal mortality ratios in E7 countries in 1990–2010; and UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation for under-5, infant, and neonatal mortality in E7 countries. These data are publicly available and offer the opportunity for scholarly analysis to provide scientific basis for hitherto unsupported assertions. We also used Ministry of Health human resources data. The report's appendix (pp 2–13) details the data sources and study methods.