Health Insurance

What is health insurance?

Health insurance is arranged for the cost of an unexpected illness or accident you may face at any time, and for the diagnosis and treatment you may need for your health.

Why Consider Health Insurance?

A healthcare cost is often unknown in advance. The key consideration is how an unexpected healthcare cost could affect your budget. Within the limits and conditions of the policy, insurance can help meet part or all of the expense.

• Unexpected healthcare costs can be planned for in financial terms.
• Contracted healthcare providers can be used to the extent the policy allows.
• Cover can be chosen more narrowly or more widely, according to need.
• Inpatient and outpatient treatment do not have to be taken as one compulsory package.

Complementary health insurance

Complementary health insurance is generally discussed alongside Türkiye’s social security system (SGK). It is aimed at people who are eligible under that system and is intended to help with expenses at contracted healthcare providers, in the situations defined in the policy, in coordination with the applicable SGK coverage. Eligibility is checked on each application. The network, limits and benefits are not the same on every policy.

Depending on the policy, the following headings may be available. They do not all have to come together:

• Inpatient treatment
• Outpatient treatment
• Tests and imaging
• Surgery
• Maternity cover
• An ambulance, or other additional services defined in the policy

Outpatient treatment can be offered as cover separate from inpatient treatment. Maternity cover is not included on every product. If there is a waiting period, the policy states when that cover begins. The network, limits and co-payment terms are reviewed together in the quotation.

Coverage Options That May Vary by Product

Some health products are built from covers you can select, rather than from a single package. That is often described as a modular structure. If the need is only inpatient treatment, unused headings do not have to be added to the same premium. The reverse is also true. A narrow plan may leave out an expense that is needed later.

Areas that often differ

• Different cover modules
• Preferences for the contracted healthcare provider network
• Annual limits or limits per treatment
• Co-payment and deductible options
• Maternity cover, where the product includes it
• Dental cover
• Additional covers such as glasses or optical care

Dental, maternity or optical cover applies when it is included in the policy. The limit, the co-payment and the network preference are set together in the same quotation. Each module is assessed on its own terms.

A modular structure offers more choice. That does not mean every combination suits the same person. An unused cover can raise the premium. If a cover is not selected, the related expense may not be covered when it arises.

What to read in a health policy

In a health policy the real distinction often appears in the exclusions and waiting periods, not in the first line of the cover table. An existing condition may not be brought into cover retrospectively by a new product. That question should be asked openly when the quotation is prepared.

• Read the exclusions and the situations left outside cover.
• If there is a waiting period, ask on which date the cover begins.
• Declare existing conditions and earlier treatment.
• Check whether the network includes the contracted healthcare providers you expect to use.
• Do not confuse an annual limit with a limit per treatment.
• Confirm on which expenses a co-payment applies.
• Give the policy terms priority over a general description.

Global Emeklilik does not reduce these headings to a single phrase such as “full cover”. The quotation clearly shows which expenses are subject to limits, waiting periods or exclusions. The decision follows that quotation.