Health reform and service satisfaction in the poor : Turkey

Turkey began to reform its health care system in 2003 and introduced universal health insurance in 2008. This paper tests the effect of health reform in Turkey on satisfaction in the poor with public health services. An ordered logit model is applied to a pooled dataset compiled from the Life Satisfaction Survey (N=60,281) by the Turkish Statistical Institute during the period from 2003 to 2011. The results reveal that at the outset the lowest 30% income group was less satisfied than the highest 70% income group but this satisfaction gap dissipated after 2004 and did not reappear during the post-reform period (2009-2011).