Title: The Political Economy of Health Reform: Turkey's Health Transformation Program, 2003-2012.
Authors: Sparkes, Susan; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.; Harvard University
Year: 2015
Abstract: This dissertation explores the political economy of Turkey’s large-scale health systems reform, known as the Health Transformation Program (HTP) (2003 – 2012). It does this by analyzing the role of institutions, physicians, and patients in the Ministry of Health’s efforts to adopt and implement changes to the country’s health financing, health workforce, and primary care systems. In the first chapter, I present a qualitative case study that uses primary interview data to explain how Turkey adopted a universal and unified health coverage system between 2003 and 2008. By applying Immergut’s institutional veto points theory, I show Minister of Health Akdağ (2002-2013) and his team of advisors used targeted strategies to overcome obstacles at critical veto points blocking adoption. This analysis fills an important gap in the literature on universal health coverage by providing a theory-based explanation for how a reform can be accomplished.^