health care in Turkey

[Pete and Jo]

Obviously, its personal choice as to whether you take out health insurance or not. I understand from expat. friends that the pay as you go option is the preferred option as most treatment is very reasonably priced. However, should you be unlucky enough to develop a serious illness e.g. cancer/heart problems etc, ongoing treatment could be expensive and limited, and you may even wish to return to Britain for treatment, this is where health insurance would be essential.
Me and my husband are moving to Ovacik in a few weeks and are currently getting quotes.
The three main companies in Britain that povide international health cover are Bupa, Norwich Union and Axa PPP.
Luckily, Pete (hubby). is an independant financial advisor so he has the contacts.
I think the best price for us ( to cover a 36 and 42 year old was about £800 per year ). This gives upto £750000 cover each per year and also covers for repatriation should your treatment warrant it.

Pete has all the info if anyone wants to know more.
Hope this helps.
Jo

[Pi55y]

Hi, just to let you know that I developed a serious eye infection whilst out in Calis over the last three months.  Late one Friday night I went to a pharmacy near the new hospital and they sold me drops and ointment. By the Monday I could hardly see. Our friend Mehmet at the 3MMMs restaurant insisted that I went to his eye doctor located over Sultan Patisserie in Fethiye.  She threw the medicine in the bin, said that it was serious, lesions on the cornea and cysts around the eyeball. She charged 50,000,000 for the initial consultation and I then went back 8 times for check ups, at first on a daily basis, all within the same price. I did have to pay for drops, ointment and anti-biotics(approx 70m) but all of the costs was way below the excess on my insurance policy. It was far better than any treatment I have received in UK (I had actually had a contact lens check up at Specsavers only 10 days before and they noticed nothing).  The eye doctor who also carries out eye operations at the new hospital even brought in her husband (yet another eye doctor) to interpret for us. I certainly think that the Turkish doctors are great, the service is excellent and that a contingency fund for medical emergencies is the best way to deal with situations that may arise ( or hopefully not arise).

Chrissie  

[JohnF]

Chrissie - glad you got sorted out in what sounds like an efficient and professional manner.

However, I don't think having a contingency fund is really the way to go if you plan to be a full time, or even part time, resident in Turkey.  We tend to go between Istanbul/Fethiye and so far have stayed within the terms of our annual travel insurance as it is pretty flexible with time out of the UK.  I think the main concern is if you end up hospitalised with something relatively serious that either requires a high level of care or expensive treatment without the deep pockets of an insurance company to bankroll it.  You might argue that if thats the case you go straight home to the UK, but what if you are medically unable to do that.  What do you do when the money runs out?

We've never had the need to go anywhere other than local pharmacy but friends of our who have, all say that the medical service in Turkey can be excellent at times but can also be really poor as well.  The one thing they all agree on is that a good health insurance policy is a must.

I'll be interested to hear what Pete & Jo have come up with as it's a subject I've been looking into myself recently.

JohnF

[Pete and Jo]

One thing I think a lot of expats don't realise is, as we understand it, once you have declared yourselves as non resident in  the U.K. you loose your rights to NHS treatment after a period of  3 months. ( I may have this wrong but I've been told this by several expats ). Therefore you can't assume that you can just return to the U.K. and get treatment if you fall seriously ill.
I hate to be morbid, but it is an important concern.

Jo