If you are planning to move to Turkey, or already live there, you need to have insurance. Health insurance in Turkey is a prerequisite for issuing a residence permit for foreign nationals. In this article, we will talk about the types of insurance and insurance laws in this country.

There are 3 types of health insurance in Turkey

1- Health insurance for foreigners (Yabancı için sağlık sigortası)
2- Individual health insurance (Bireysel sağlık sigortası)
3- Complementary health insurance (Tamamlayıcı Sağlık Sigortası)

The insurance for foreigners prices are set by the government every year. However, the other two, have different plans and prices.

Residential health insurance in Turkey - sağlık sigorta

One of the things that foreigners living in Turkey deal with is health insurance. You need health insurance in order to get your residence permit.
We may have heard from some (uninformed) people that health insurance for foreigners does not provide services to its holders and is only in the form of a formality to complete the documents for residence, this is completely wrong!
There might be very few service centers that accept this insurance. Or there is no service center at the applicant's residence. Or the medical centers that accept this insurance are not at the applicant's place of residence.
Therefore, when receiving residence insurance, it should be noted that the centers have more services and you can benefit from this insurance.
Issues such as insurance contract parties, such as hospitals, pharmacies and clinics, are important things to know.


Turkish Residence Insurance Obligations

The next point is insurance obligations. Because these insurances have less obligations, and because of this, are cheap and offer less , and when the applicant wants to use this insurance, it is announced that it is not possible to use the services of this insurance.


Social Security and Commercial Insurance in Turkey

Turkish social security insurance, including health, pension and disability insurance, known as SGK, falls into three main categories.

1- Government insurance: For people who work in government organizations.
2- Self-insurance: It is for people who do company registration
3- SSK insurance: includes people who work privately.


There is a specific rule for retirement age in each of these types of insurance. The age is 60 for men and 55 for women. And the number of working days is enough for 3 thousand days or the 20 years of service in Turkey.

Another type of insurance available in Turkey is commercial insurance. Commercial insurance includes 60 private and state-owned companies, including international companies, Turkish companies and companies representing in Turkey, which provide services such as life insurance, health insurance, and insurance. Car, fire...

Types of Social Security in Turkey

The Turkish Social Security Insurance Organization SGK offers its insurance services to foreigners as well as Turkish citizens in various packages.

SSK Employer Insurance:
is one of the types of insurance in Turkey. This type of insurance is for foreigners who are allowed to work in Turkey or Turkish citizens. This insurance is not self-employed and must be done through the employer.

Insure yourself:
Another type of self-insurance is BAĞKUR. This type of insurance is for those who register a company or own a business in Turkey. These people can deposit insurance for themselves.

GSS Insurance:
The third type of insurance is GSS. This insurance is for Turkish citizens, people who later become Turkish citizens, can use this type of insurance.
With this type of insurance, you can benefit from the free medical services of public hospitals. This type of insurance does not include retirement. And the person must have insurance from BIREYSEL EKMEKLELIK with it.

SSK Insurance with Work Permit or Employer work permit
SSK Insurance can be used after receiving your or work permit.
As mentioned earlier, SSK insurance could not be done in person. This insurance must be done by the employer.
SSK insurance is the same insurance known as blue card for receiving your work permit. The important point is that not all companies can hire foreigners and the company must have the necessary conditions to hire foreigners as employees.
Among these conditions, having a registered capital of more than 100,000 liras, as well as five Turkish people per foreigner must be employed in the company. But there are no restrictions on hiring Turkish citizens. If you have Turkish citizenship, you can work wherever you want

Self-employed SGK Insurance (BAĞKUR):
Self-employed insurance is an insurance in which individuals personally, in a situation where they have their own business, with the aim of benefiting from insurance services, use this method for insurance. They use themselves and become the so-called employer of their business. Receiving this type of insurance in Turkey requires a person to stay in Turkey for at least one year continuously, and only after one year can they benefit from receiving insurance.

Free GSS insurance in Turkey:
One type of insurance under the supervision of the Turkish Social Security Organization (SGK) is Genel Sağlik Sigortası. Which means public insurance for Turkish citizens.
This health insurance is for people who are Turkish citizens. Therefore, foreigners who have not yet received Turkish citizenship can not benefit from this insurance.
This insurance is only for people who receive Turkish citizenship. Individuals can open a GSS for themselves by contacting the Social Security Administration and use the medical services of Turkish public hospitals for free.
Note that GSS insurance only covers medical services and people can not benefit from retirement by using and paying for that insurance.
If you want to benefit from retirement with health care, you must use Bireysel Emeklilik Sigortası. You can use private companies to open this type of insurance.


Turkish Student Insurance

People who want to get a residence permit in Turkey by studying in Turkey must apply to the insurance centers within 3 months to apply for insurance and submit the insurance documents along with the documents required to obtain a residence permit to the Immigration Office. Usually some private universities insure their own students.

Life and capital insurance in Turkey
Due to the presence of powerful international insurance companies in Turkey, 21 companies are active only in the field of life and pension insurance, which has led to various plans and intense competition between insurance companies.
This is in the interest of customers and applicants can use the benefits of these insurance policies which offers both retirement and comprehensive health insurance.

Retirement in Turkey

Insurance and retirement in Turkey are very important for foreigners or those who receive Turkish citizenship. These people should keep in mind that the number of years they have to work in Turkey, in order to reach retirement age, and use their retirement is seven thousand five hundred days. Which is continuous or intermittent or until the age of 55 years.
To get insurances that use banks or other insurances on their own, you should refer to insurances and private companies. If you work in a company, you can use SYK insurances, which are for seven thousand five hundred days or They will receive a pension when they reach the age of 55.
These insurance policies are at least 10 years old and they are also entitled to banking services such as loans and partnership interest. A significant issue that can be interesting for us is that you can get this insurance policy anywhere in the world. For example, the insurer buys a life insurance policy in Istanbul, immigrates to Germany 2 years later and moves to Canada 5 years later.
During this period, it is enough to inform the insurance company that your premium corresponds to the currency of the destination country, that you can continue the insurance policy, and finally the insurance policy in any place that ends in the same country, retirement benefits and Or insurance services.

Car insurance in Turkey

Turkey has covered this issue in the form of two insurance policies in order to protect the owners of land motor vehicles as well as people who are injured in an accident with these vehicles.
Traffic Insurance (Trafik Sigortası): In 1990, due to the increase in production of cars and their owners, it was decided that this insurance policy should be mandatory. If you do not have traffic insurance in Turkey, the car will be confiscated by the police and fined. In this type of insurance, the third party has financial and personal coverage.


Car body insurance in Turkey (Kasko Sigortası):
One of the types of car insurance in Turkey is body insurance, which is also available in many countries. This insurance is called Kasko insurance. This insurance is not mandatory in any country but its useful if you get it.
In this car insurance policy, according to its value and price, it is evaluated and covered against risks such as fire, natural disasters, theft, broken glass, etc.,
One of the reasons for using this insurance is that cars in Turkey are luxury items and for this reason it is better to use body insurance. Kasko premium based on the value of the car, type, vehicle use model, driver's records, no damage in previous years and...
It is interesting to know that there is no cap on body insurance issued in Turkey.
For example, if the price of a car is three hundred thousand liras, the price of one million liras is considered as the insurance cap, which does not reach this amount. Therefore, body insurance is very important in Turkey because it has an unlimited cap.

Car body insurance coverage in Turkey:
A very important point about body insurance in Turkey is the allocation of insurance to some very minor and non-essential cases. One of them is the burning of the car seat due to cigarette fire or the loss of the switch or something like that. For example, if a fire, theft, accident, or natural disaster causes damage to a vehicle, the body insurance generally covers these accidents, and in addition, the loss of the switch is also covered by insurance.
A noteworthy thing about car body insurance in Turkey or Kasko is that if there is an accident in Turkey, and both parties are injured in the accident, and third party insurance can not cover the amount of damage to the other person, Kasko insurance deducts damages from the cap and pays the other person.

Traffic or third party insurance in Turkey:
Traffic insurance, or third-party insurance, in which car owners are required to insure their vehicles compulsorily in Turkey from year 1, is to provide compensation to a third party. That is, when an accident occurs, the person who has been involved in the accident can use the insurance and pay the other person's compensation.
For this purpose, foreigners who are in Turkey and use a private car need to get specialized and affordable insurance services. It should be noted that insurance claims and compensation in Turkey, unlike some countries, which is based on blood money and Islamic concepts, but in Turkey, compensation is based on a specified caps. And in case of death and injury or any kind of financial damages, it determines the specific ceiling and the insurance is priced based on it. Of course, the type of car, model, type and year of manufacture affect the cost of your one-year insurance in Turkey.

International Third Party Insurance - Green Card:
Car green card insurance is required when a person intends to travel and leave the country by private car, and in addition to internationalizing the license, insurance also needs to be activated in the country. To do this, you need to get green card insurance.
There are 40 member countries of the green card system, of which Iran and Turkey are among them. And they are also active in these countries where you can get the third party insurance you want in the destination country.
Therefore, when doing the hood and preparing the car to leave the country, you must also receive green card insurance.

Fire insurance in Turkey
One of the oldest types of insurance is fire insurance.
Today, these insurance policies are very diverse, in fact, people can cover their property with fire insurance ‌ body ‌ and include various coverages such as fire, explosion, lightning, flood, earthquake, theft, broken glass and… face..
Turkey has also been a leader in fire insurance due to the presence of foreign companies. On the other hand, after the damage and catastrophe of the 1999 earthquake, Turkey passed a law that all residential houses must be compulsorily insured against earthquake and natural disasters or DASK.
With this explanation, we should know that all compatriots who buy property in Turkey in Turkey, to register the document must buy DASK insurance, also an important issue that, water, electricity and gas departments, do insurance DASK is mandatory for the owner to do their administrative work.
Of course, this insurance covers fire, earthquake, landslides and tsunamis, and to complete it, you must have a residential fire insurance or Konut Sigortası, which has more complete coverage such as theft, broken glass, etc. ,