ABSTRACT

In Turkey, health reform environment affects out-of-pocket health expenditure patterns of individuals. Subsequently, index and curve approaches are used together for equity analysis of the distribution of pharmaceutical expenses in Turkey. In Turkey, Household Budget Survey is a national survey, which mainly focuses on consumption expenditure. In Turkey, no statistics are available for the time before the Health Transformation Program was established; therefore, further research is necessary to verify the effects of health reform and to observe the changes in the regressive pattern of pharmaceutical expenses. Progressivity analysis of burden of pharmaceutical product expenditures of households by using the Kakwani index scores for the years 2005-2015 clarifies a regressive pattern in Turkey. The degree of regressivity is high for the year 2005; however, a less regressive trend is observed for the years 2010 and 2015. In other words, in Turkey pharmaceutical expenditure is regressive relative to the increase in the level of income under health reforms.