Author Topic: Medical insurance  (Read 36624 times)

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Offline hubblebubble

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« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2012, 09:16:22 AM »
the consulate website suggests this might be delayed until december 2012, although the current law states by end dec 2011 with one months grace, ie all to be registered by the end of this month.
This only applies if you have had a minimum of 1 year resident. The amount you pay is dependent on income with this automatically being assessed at the highest level if you dont declare otherwise (highest level is 1773tl a month or twice minimum wage as income).
Given they are trying to get all the Turkish citizens on the system also it is no wonder it is as usual chaotic in implementation and understanding, but am sure all will become clear shortly.



Offline col

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« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2012, 11:03:21 AM »
Seems to be just typical of the Turkish govt. One year they reduce the visa costs to our advantage, the following year they try to put in place complsory health insurance, as we have been expecting. As said on this subject a year or so back, why on earth can they just not leave it as it is, IF any ex pats want health isurance, then take it out. For those who don't, just pay when or if hospital treatment is needed. But no, let's just try and fleece all ex pats for something else.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2012, 11:04:47 AM by col »

Offline quackers

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« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2012, 16:18:58 PM »
When we applied for SGK/Bagkur you had to have had a residency permit for 1 year with no breaks back to UK. Paper work was passport,RP, Nufus number. 1 form to fill in and in 1 persons name only (husband in our case) after 6 weeks we went back ,we had been accepted so we paid for the 6 weeks since applying ,as requested,and then added myelf as spouse to the insurance giving passport,RP and Nufus number and marriage certificate.The cost then  was 250tl per month it has gone up to 285tl per month combined fee for both of us since.When we left the UK to retire here we sent back our Nat Insurance cards with a covering letter to say we were moving abroad permanently. We have never had any problems with Turkish Government Health Authority despite being told by ex pats we would have our insurance cancelled, payments refused and letters were forthcoming to us and we would have to pay back any money we had been allocated for medical treatment. Maybe we are lucky or maybe we followed the right procedure and also we did not come across the lady at the new SGK office, we dealt with a charming man at the old office.For us we are grateful for the assistance given us by the Turkish Government. We expected to have to pay medical insurance when we moved here but are suprised the cost is as low as it is and for us it works.I wonder what would happen if you were ever seriously ill here and had no insurance and not enough money to pay for the treatment needed. We think treatment would be refused and then what would you do if you were too ill to return to UK for assistance.We did a lot of research before we moved out here and it paid off. Some things have gone to plan and some have not but we love living here every day.

Offline Dutchie

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« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2012, 16:55:31 PM »
I know of people who have been in such a situation (foreigners living in Turkey without insurance) and they did get treated.
For years the hospital tried to get some of the money (about 15.000 euros) but in the end they gave up and wrote it off.

In this case it concerned Germans without any belongings and no property.
I reckon it would have been different if they had owned a property.

Offline quackers

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« Reply #14 on: January 17, 2012, 19:18:09 PM »
That makes it bad for the rest of us,and does not give a good impression of foreigers living abroad.Surely it is important to have medical insurance or the means to pay for treatment without it. I know people will compare this situation with how foreigners are treated by the UK health service but we do not live in the UK anymore so we abide by this countries laws. We cannot and do not expect this country to change it laws for us. We do not feel we are being mistreated by the Turkish Government in fact we are pleased to be able to join the SGK/Bagkur insurance as we would have had to pay more for private insurance,maybe we are in the minority.
We also know people that if this law comes in will not be able to afford it and do not have the means to return to the UK. They will have a big problem.

Offline Ovacikpeedoff

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« Reply #15 on: January 17, 2012, 20:42:18 PM »
Quackers, totally agree with what you are saying. I have been reading where some people are moaning about having to pay monthly and should only need to pay if they use the service. It is a bit like having a lottery ticket and saying I will pay for it if my numbers come up and I win the jackpot. If everyone adopted that attitude there would be no jackpot to win or in the case of the health issue there would be no hospitals to treat patients.Hospitals and health systems do not run on fresh air.These then would be the people who would start moaning about the poor quality of the medical care provided.

When leaving the UK people should have taken the health situation into account and should have ensured that they could afford it if something was to happen.If they could not afford it then they should have never left the UK.We moan in the UK when we hear of foreigners using the NHS but it is acceptable to do it in Turkey.

Offline quackers

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« Reply #16 on: January 18, 2012, 06:30:29 AM »
After we came to Turkey my husband needed an operation and it cost us 9500tl. Two years later he needed 2 more operations we had Bagkur by then and the costs were 1800tl and 789tl instead of 13.500tl and 3500tl. A geat saving I think you would agree.We did not expect these operations so were grateful to be on the system. We were informed by ex pats ,who knew everything,that when we went to pay next payment it would be refused and we would lose our insurance and have to pay all the money saved back to the Government. Luckily I am not intimidated by people 'in the know' and got the facts for myself . We even had Esnaf phone us to say they had been told by ex pats that this was the case and was I aware. I just told them watch this space. We are happy here and do not demand anything from the Turkish Government. We make sure we understand what the system is and are polite and say thankyou. I know people who have gone into SGK office all guns blazing demanding they`re rights because they pay tax here, and telling the office staff the Turks are lucky to have us here propping up they`re country by spending lots of money. We are living here because we wanted to retire abroad it was just where to retire and this country ticked all the boxes and still does.

Offline yakamoz

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« Reply #17 on: January 18, 2012, 11:16:32 AM »
Sorry if this has come up before but need some clarification. What if you only get residency so you can stay longer than 90 in 180 days ie we usually stay for two 12 week periods between May and October. Would we have to take up insurance.
It seems to me that people who only want to stay part-time in Turkey are going to be forced to pay more ie residency, health insurance. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Offline Scunner

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Medical insurance
« Reply #18 on: January 18, 2012, 11:30:00 AM »
quote:
Originally posted by col

Seems to be just typical of the Turkish govt. One year they reduce the visa costs to our advantage, the following year they try to put in place complsory health insurance, as we have been expecting. As said on this subject a year or so back, why on earth can they just not leave it as it is, IF any ex pats want health isurance, then take it out. For those who don't, just pay when or if hospital treatment is needed. But no, let's just try and fleece all ex pats for something else.


They could have spun this far better - they should have left residency at the higher rate and announced that (kindly) health insurance was now included at no extra cost  :)

Offline hubblebubble

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« Reply #19 on: January 18, 2012, 12:24:01 PM »
inclined to agree keith, but would that then have met the EU objective of getting us all registered? (Yes the information is shared with relevant governments).
The health scheme is UN driven, basicly putting in famiy GP system and NHS for all citizens, the anomoly of foreign reidents has been allowed for, once they have been resident for the qualifying period.
At present we are not being asked to pay any different amount to a Turkish citizen except my understanding is turkish pensioners do not pay, it is, as always here, the implementation that is chaotic and the threat of fines etc when not even the British consulate can get the same answer from different departments.




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