TY - JOUR AU - Cesur, Resul AU - Güneş, Pınar Mine AU - Tekin, Erdal AU - Ulker, Aydogan TI - The Value of Socialized Medicine: The Impact of Universal Primary Healthcare Provision on Mortality Rates in Turkey JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 21510 PY - 2015 Y2 - August 2015 DO - 10.3386/w21510 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w21510 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w21510.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Resul Cesur University of Connecticut School of Business 2100 Hillside Road Storrs, CT 06269 Tel: 860/486-6315 E-Mail: cesur@uconn.edu Pinar Mine Gunes Department of Economics University of Alberta 9-10 HM Tory Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2H4 E-Mail: gunes@ualberta.ca Erdal Tekin School of Public Affairs American University 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016-8070 Tel: (202) 885-6361 E-Mail: tekin@american.edu Aydogan Ulker Department of Economics Deakin University 221 Burwood Highway Burwood VIC, 3125 Australia E-Mail: ulker@deakin.edu.au AB - This paper examines the impact of universal, free, and easily accessible primary healthcare on population health as measured by age-specific mortality rates, focusing on a nationwide socialized medicine program implemented in Turkey. The Family Medicine Program (FMP), launched in 2005, assigns each Turkish citizen to a specific state-employed family physician who offers a wide range of primary healthcare services that are free-of-charge. Furthermore, these services are provided at family health centers, which operate on a walk-in basis and are located within the neighborhoods in close proximity to the patients. To identify the causal impact of the FMP, we exploit the variation in its introduction across provinces and over time. Our estimates indicate that the FMP caused the mortality rate to decrease by 25.6% among infants, 7.7% among the elderly, and 22.9% among children ages 1-4. These estimates translate into 2.6, 1.29, and 0.13 fewer deaths among infants, the elderly, and children ages 1-4, respectively. Furthermore, the effects appear to strengthen over time. We also show evidence to suggest that the FMP has contributed to an equalization of mortality across provinces. Finally, our calculations indicate that each family physician saves about 0.15, 0.46, and 0.005 lives among infants, the elderly, and children ages 1- 4 per province every year. ER -