Yesterday the phone rang and when I answered it was a friend whom I had not heard from in a while. My friend is an American and she said that she had received some news and was confused by it and unsure about what to do. It had to do with new mandatory health insurance for foreigners. As I share this informative notice for US citizens from the US Embassy I want to state from the beginning to please note that the details about this notice may change as more information is obtained and clarified. The important thing about this notice for foreigners in Turkey is that change is in the air and you need to try to stay informed on the latest developments or you could be caught out and even be fined for failure to comply. It is easy to live in another culture where another language is spoken and miss important announcements. This is a perfect example of how suddenly things can change and you are totally unaware. Here are the main points of the announcements:
“Effective Jan. 1, 2012, the Turkish government implemented a mandatory health insurance law called the Social Insurance and Universal Health Insurance Law [UHI]. It applies to foreigners who have resided in Turkey for more than one year as of Jan. 1, 2012. All US citizens and foreign residents in Turkey have until Jan. 31, 2012 to register at their nearest Social Security Provincial Directorate Office [Sosyal Güvenlik Il Müdürlüğü]. Those who fail to register by Jan. 31, 2012 will be fined.
“Exactly how this new law applies to US citizens and the foreign community is difficult to interpret. The English wording of the law can be found here. “Some of the key provisions of the law are as follows:
“1) First, registration appears mandatory:
“‘[foreigners] … shall be deemed to be universal health insurance holder as of the date they complete one year residence period in Turkey and they shall be registered with a universal health insurance entrance notification to be submitted within [a] month from this date’ [Article 61, item c]. It also mentions that fines will apply if the entrance notification is not submitted within the one month time frame. The amount of the fine is not specified. 2) Even if you already have health insurance that covers you in Turkey it appears that you will still be required to enroll. If you are not Turkish, and you have a Turkish residence permit, and you are ‘not insurance holders under legislation of a foreign country,’ you are -- by legal definition -- a holder of Universal Health Insurance [Article 60, item d] and you are obliged to pay premiums [Article 87, item b]. “There are several different interpretations of ‘not insurance holders under legislation of a foreign country’ -- specifically with regards to whether private health insurance, or travel insurance qualifies -- and therefore exempts you from the UHI law. The phrase ‘under legislation of a foreign country’ implies a national health insurance plan. In the United States Medicare qualifies as a national health insurance plan but Medicare does not provide coverage outside of the United States. “As a result, even if you are enrolled in Medicare in the United States you would still need to enroll in the Turkish UHI by Jan. 31. 3) This law appears to apply to any foreigner residing in Turkey for at least one year, regardless of whether or not they are employed. There doesn’t appear to be any clarification in the English wording. However, the absence of such wording in the definition in the English version [Article 61, item c] seems to imply that the UHI law applies regardless of work status. “The US Embassy in Turkey strongly recommends that US citizens contact their local Social Security Provincial Directorate Office as soon as possible to get further information and avoid the fine.”
The information presented above is based on the information collected up to Jan. 24. Before sending this article to print, the US Consulate said meetings are going on to clarify exactly what the new mandatory health insurance requirement means and that they expect clarification within a week. They have also indicated that the deadline has been extended until the end of February for those already possessing a one-year residence permit (ikamet). So please follow the consulate’s website for any more last minute updates on this topic.
