Does family medicine reduce household health expenditures: evidence from Turkiye

Abstract

Turkiye introduced a family medicine-centered primary healthcare model in 2005 as part of the Health Transformation Program, which aimed to reduce household healthcare expenditures, improve access to health services, and reduce the crowding-out effect in first-stage hospital institutions. We investigate the impact of the family medicine program on household healthcare expenditures in Turkiye, focusing on doctor visits, medication prescriptions, and hospitalization expenditures. Using data from a large representative household survey, we employ a difference-in-differences approach combined with the entropy-balancing matching technique. Our robust findings show that living in a province exposed to the family medicine program reduced household doctor visit expenditures by over 40 percent. We also find a significant negative association between the family medicine program and expenditures regarding doctor visits and medication prescriptions in the long run. Greater efforts are now needed to ensure the quality of services offered by family health centers, such as improving the doctor-to-patient ratio.