Green Card Health Insurance and Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures in Türkiye: Evidence from Entropy Balancing
Abstract
Over the past two decades, Türkiye has significantly advanced health system reforms towards universal health coverage, notably expanding non-contributory, government-funded health insurance benefits (Green Card) for low-income households to mitigate inequities in financing, access, and outcomes. This research investigates the association between the Green Card and low-income households' out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures, focusing on physician and hospital costs. Using the Entropy Balancing technique on TurkStat Household Budget Survey data (2005-2018) to balance observed characteristics between Green Card holders and non-holders, the study finds an inverse relationship between Green Card and healthcare costs, especially in regions with enhanced infrastructure. These results are consistent with non-contributory insurance being an important tool for addressing financing inequities for the disadvantaged, and the association between the program and out-of-pocket expenditures varies with the region's health infrastructure.
Keywords
Green Card Health Insurance, Government-Funded Health Insurance, Healthcare Expenditures, Low-Income Households, Entropy Balancing Method
Ethical Statement
The author declares that he has no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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