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The Medium Term Program (MTP), which includes three-year economic targets and policies for the 2024-2026 period, prepared by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Presidency Strategy and Budget Directorate, was announced in the first week of September 2023. One of the latest evaluations of the MTP focused on the health sector.

TURKEY - The Medium Term Program, which was eagerly awaited by the public within the scope of discussions on change in economic management and return to rationality, was published at the beginning of September this year, as it is annually. The Medium Term Program prepared by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Presidency's Strategy and Budget Directorate included three-year economic targets and policies between 2024-2026. ECONiX Research, which provides research and consultancy services to the health sector on topics such as market access, health economics and real-life data analysis with its offices in Estonia, Tunisia and Turkey, examined the Medium Term Program from a health perspective.

Health sector is in the category of “foreign exchange earning service trade

The first finding noted by ECONiX researchers, who examined the MTP to better understand potential health-related plans, policy implementations, legislative updates and other related issues for the future period, was that the health sector is also counted among the "foreign exchange-generating service sectors". MTP's Balance of Payments Pointing out that health services, one of the sectors listed in the 18th article of the section, will be supported in terms of efficiency and international competitiveness within the scope of the strategies, Selin Ökçün, one of ECONiX Research experts, said: "With the implementation of this policy, companies producing in Turkey can gain a competitive advantage. They have generic products in accordance with the Local Production Policy. Companies that produce these products in Turkey can benefit from incentives when exporting.”

Quality, quantity and marketing support for health tourism  

The 22nd article of the Balance of Payments section of the MTP included the title of health tourism. It was stated that within the scope of the three-year program, the service capacity in the field of health tourism would be improved in quality and quantity, and it was emphasized that promotion and marketing activities for health tourism activities would be increased. 

International Health Services Inc. Reminding that according to the data published by (USHAŞ), Turkey's income from health tourism in 2022 is at the level of 2.1 million dollars, ECONiX Research Management Team Member Dr. Birol Tibet said, “The Ministry of Health has recently published a new legislation for topics such as marketing and certification of services such as hair transplantation. The article in question in the OVP coincides with this move. Similar regulations with the same focus can be expected to be published in the future. All of these aim to make health tourism contribute more to the country's economy and become stronger in international competition."

The aim is to reduce drug and treatment costs and strengthen the healthcare supply chain.

It was also noted that rational drug use will be encouraged in the Public Finance section of the Medium Term Program, and the drug and medical material supply chain will be strengthened by expanding the scope of the State Supply Office and Health Market application. ECONiX Research Management Team Member stated that the dissemination of the rational drug use policy, starting with antibiotics and some antidepressants, could lead to lowering drug and treatment costs in the health sector and more efficient use of resources. Dr Birol Tibet stated, "It is understood from the article regarding the supply chain that the aim is to provide better healthcare services by making the supply of medicines and medical supplies in the healthcare sector more regular, effective and robust.”

Change rate can be challenging

The New Medium Term Program is aimed at ensuring that healthcare services are more sustainable, rational and cost-effective, with measures such as enabling the Social Security Institution to fulfil its duties more effectively through digital transformation, using financial resources more efficiently, and encouraging the provision of more appropriate and effective services to patients. ECONiX Research Management Team Member Dr. Güvenç Koçkaya pointed out and shared the following evaluation, “When we evaluate it from a health perspective, we can say with confidence that the Medium Term Program covers many topics, from disaster management to public finance, from the pharmaceutical market to inter-institutional data sharing. However, global economic conditions and the dollar/TL exchange rate may be challenging in terms of implementing these policies. In a report we shared as ECONiX Research in the past months, we emphasized that inflation in healthcare will double prices in 2022. In a scenario where the Dollar/TL exchange rate is predicted to be 47.80 in 2027, we predict that the pharmaceutical fixed Euro exchange rate will be 15.77 in 2024, 24.27 in 2025, 29.00 in 2026 and 31.54 in 2027.