confused.com/sgk!!!

[snowtop]

i called in yesterday to register for sgk, but because i did not have a translated marraige cert was told to come back later.  I asked a few questions and came out of the office quite gob smacked.
What i cannot get my head round is,
1.  You have to have 1 year uninterupted recidency before you apply.      That is OK
2.  You have to pay the installments from the previous January                Why? other than it is (supposedly) the law
3. You get fined 800TL                                                                          Why? other than it is (supposedly) the law
4.  in my case it amounts to 3000TL.                                                     For what reason or justification is there to warrant all that money to join an
                                                                                                          health scheme?

Is there anybody who can give an answer to this one as i am mentaly going round in ever decreasing circles and is making me very wary about joining what seems to be a good health system.

[tinkerman]

I did mine two weeks ago after collating a years residency, i went to the bank to pay first payment and the machine was showing 2,300 Lira!
I went back to sgk and explained, they corrected it to one payment of 232 Lira for first payment, no backdated payments or fines.   I think it was input wrong when I registered

[Diverbaz 1]

The difference maybe is that you have only just got a full years residency and snowtop has more than a year, if not then snowtop needs to do the same as you Andy.

[Ian]

We reach our "full first year" on 2nd January and have been discussing this in some detail as recently as yesterday.

We anticipate being here 6-months a year for the final 4 years of our residency and we were under the impression it was now "optional" again as long as you had some form of cover - which we have had to date.

I was concerned that some have said they still had to pay at the Devlet for treatment that "was not covered" and according to some others the price seemed to be going up and making monthly payments was an ongoing trauma and had to be by person in cash!

We also have 3 (all mid 80 something) parents between us and our plans could be altered at any time and we wondered if we suddenly "stopped payment" because we were only coming out for holidays for the foreseeable future due to a crisis at home - would we be fined or deported the next time we came out   

We concluded that on balance it was better to take it particularly as we are 2 and it is a bogof deal the same price for one or two.

It seems a lifetime ago now when we were all queuing in chaos outside the SGK offices but I would really value some opinions of you experiences now and your level of comfort?

Ian

[busybee]

We are going today to do ours after 1 full year of residency and have been told by a turkish friend that there is no back payment unless you registered at the beginning of the year.  Will let you know how we get on.

[quackers]

Thats correct. Had Turkısh insurance for 3 years and personally ıt works for us and have used ıt many tımes and am usıng ıt agaın now.Used ıt at Devlet and Esnaf. No payment problems unless system ıs down, but no Dırect Debıt yet. Stıll have to pay to see doctors but very small ammount. Esnaf was 32 tl ,not paıd at Devlet yet tıll I see Doctor on Monday but ıt used to be 15tl. As I understand ıt you pay only 20% of the cost of treatment and medıcatıon needed , we have found thıs ıs the case. Met someone yesterday who took out prıvate medıcal ınsurance wıth hıs Turkısh Bank and then found out he and hıs wife were not covered for the broken leg she had  and a hıp problem that he wanted ınvestıgated. You pays your money you takes your choıce.

[Ian]

We registered at the beginning of the year - as I suspect Tinx and many others did - but we were told we had to register or be fined - so maybe a few others will have to go and explain that they have not been using the system - just waiting for the year to pass so we could start paying and using the system :-)