A Comparative Performance Analysis of Türkiye's Health System within OECD Countries

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Çakır K., Erol Ö., Karadayı M. A.

Journal of Health Systems and Policies, cilt.6, ss.127-141, 2024 (Hakemli Dergi)

Özet

A country’s healthcare system represents one of its most vital infrastructures, profoundly impacting the well-being of its citizens. Examining key performance indicators (KPIs) helps policymakers understand the complex nature of the health system and identify areas for improvement. This paper provides a comparative performance analysis of Türkiye’s health system compared to other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. An Output-Oriented Categorical Data Envelopment (CAT-DEA) model is used, and K-means clustering were applied for categorizing countries based on health expenditures. In this study, inputs include health expenditure, availability of doctors and nurses, and hospital beds, while outputs consist of life expectancy at birth and citizen satisfaction with healthcare services. The efficiency scores of 36 OECD countries were calculated, and 6 of them were found to be efficient. However, the analysis shows that higher health expenditures, while placing countries in higher categories, do not necessarily correlate with greater efficiency scores. Therefore, policymakers should not rely solely on increasing per capita health expenditure as a strategy to improve efficiency; it must be paired with effective resource allocation to enhance system performance.