Turkish Health Care Details

Legalixa is an award-winning immigration law firm in Istanbul, Turkey with an exceptional success rate in almost every legal matter we have ever handled. How to access state-funded Turkish health care in Turkey if you are under 65, what options older residents have, general costs, and coverage. For foreigners under 65 planning to relocate to Turkey, health insurance is compulsory. Without it, you won’t be able to gain residency in Turkey.

If you’re over 65 you no longer have to have medical insurance in place. The rules, as they currently stand, require any foreign citizen under the age of 65 to have health insurance if they want to have residency in Turkey.

Our Turkish immigration lawyers represent our clients from application until they get their Turkish Passport. Our Turkish immigration lawyers also represent our clients in other immigration law issues including; extending resident and work permits, applying for Turkish citizenship, and filing a lawsuit to cancel any objections.

The options open to each individual under the age of 65 are either buy your own private medical insurance or join Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu (SGK), the state insurance scheme category open to expatriates. You have to legally reside in Turkey for at least one year to be able to enroll.

Turkish Health Care

To join SGK you have to have a health assessment, and monthly fees are fixed. They are currently starting from 850 TL. This premium will cover a married couple and any dependents under 18.

Note: there is no discount for a single person and couples not legally married have to pay separate premiums.

There are plenty of private insurers in Turkey and internationally which offer health insurance policies to ex-pats as an alternative. And in Turkey, there are state and private hospitals and medical facilities.

Depending on which type of insurance you opt for, you will be eligible for care at either a state or a private medical facility. Note, however, that if you take out SGK some private hospital treatment may be covered. Never assume, always ask in advance.

Turkish Health Care System

If you join SGK you can’t opt to unsubscribe unless you leave Turkey permanently and give up your residency.

If you’re over 65 you no longer have to have compulsory medical insurance in place in order to be able to receive or renew your residency. This is because those responsible for introducing the entire scheme became aware that it was restrictively expensive for many over the age of 65 to get private health insurance, or even afford SGK.

If you’re over 65 and can afford to do so, join SGK. It will mean that no matter what, any health issues will be covered and you won’t be hit by spiraling costs as price increases are likely to remain within realistic and modest limits.

You can choose to pay as you go for treatment instead, however, but bear in mind that a long-term, chronic or serious condition could incur seriously high costs that might become unaffordable, and leave you in an exceptionally vulnerable position at a time in your life when you can’t recover financially speaking.

Therefore, we strongly urge anyone moving abroad to accept the need to continue to cover the protection of their health by buying appropriate health insurance.

Whether you’re moving to Turkey or Thailand, America or Zambia plan to have to pay for health insurance!

Turkish Citizenship with Investment

Turkish Citizenship Law’s Article 12 allows foreign investors to acquire Turkish citizenship in exceptional terms; with 18.09.2018 dated 106 numbered Presidential Decree, amendatory new arrangements have been made regarding the amounts mentioned in Article 20 of the Regulation on the Implementation of the law mentioned above.