100th Year of the Health Policies

The organization of the centralized public health services plays a significant role during the construction of modern nation states. Similarly, during the construction of the modern Turkish state, the organization of public health services, especially the health institutions necessary to combat epidemics, played an important role. While there were developments such as the establishment of health service organizations and the production of national vaccines and medicines from the foundation of the republic until the end of World War II, in the post-war period the insurance institutions were established and it was aimed to expand the public health services with the socialization practices. While with the abandonment of socialization practices in the 1970s, health services became dependent on the market, the process of marketization in health both was accelerated and deepened with the neoliberal policies that dominated the world in the 1980s. Health services underwent radical changes in all areas from financing to organizational structure, from employment to service delivery with the 2003 Health Transformation Programme. As a complement to this fundamental transformation in health services, the "City Hospitals" project was started to be implemented in 2005 as a "Public Private Partnership" model, which is described as the "Second Phase of Health Transformation Programme".This study aims to address the changes and transformations that health services have undergone in the 100 years since the foundation of the republic. Such a historical evaluation is only possible if the projections of the economic and political transformations in Turkey on health services are taken into consideration. Therefore, the health policies implemented in the period from the early years of the republic to the present day are analyzed together with the transformations in the economic and political structures behind them. In addition, the study aims to reveal the current state of health policies and public health services shaped by these policies and the problems of this current situation in the 100th anniversary of the republic.