The most important factor affecting the quality of life of people throughout life is to be in social security. Social security is the assurance of people being saved from the harms of social dangers by using premium or non-contributory systems as “human rights” and essentially “state duty” from the damages caused by social dangers that disrupt the peace and welfare of the society, regardless of their income. In this direction, the right to social security in our country is defined in article 60 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey as “Everyone has the right to social security. The state takes the necessary measures to ensure this security and establishes the organization”.
The concept of social security, which is defined as a system that meets the subsistence and living needs of people whose income or earnings have been interrupted due to an occupational or social risk, without the need for the help of others; According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), “Social Security is defined as: “Social Security is defined as the economic and social loss that will be caused by a set of public measures to the members of the society, wholly or fundamentally, resulting from illness, pregnancy, work accident, unemployment, old age and death. its protection against hardships, the provision of medical care and the support of families with children.”
The general structure of social security in Turkey is based on the principles of insurance together with the understanding of the social state. The conditions and amount of insurance benefits to be given to the insured are determined in advance, and services are provided in long and short term insurance branches.
Turkey’s social security system, as a requirement of the social state, was created without considering the one-to-one benefit/cost balance, unlike private insurance. This situation causes all risks caused by socio-economic and demographic changes to be carried by the system.
Our insurance system is financed through the premiums received, and the premiums received from the active insured are used to cover the payments of all the insured. In this financing system, which is expressed as a premium system, premiums are collected from insured persons and these premiums are transferred to social insurance benefits. This type of financing is called distribution method and is based on generational sharing.
However, the decisions taken in the field of social security in Turkey for many years without considering the financial balances, especially until the 2000s, caused the weakening of the social security system and thus caused the health and insurance services to be insufficient. The financial and structural problems that arose over time in our social security system made it inevitable to make reforms in this area.
In this context, social security reform was carried out with the Social Security Institution Law No. 5502 and the Social Security and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510. With the reform made in 2006, it was aimed to reorganize our social security system, which has been on the agenda with problems for many years, and to bring the system to a participatory, equal and sustainable structure.
The “Social Security Reform”, one of the most important and major reforms in the history of world social security, was carried out, and SSK, Bağ-Kur and Retirement Fund, which provide services according to different norms and standards, were combined under one roof in 2006. Thus, the foundations of a fair system covering all citizens were laid.
With the Social Security Reform, which is a work that shapes the future of Turkey, the worries of our citizens about the future have decreased and their trust and loyalty to the system has started to increase.
Currently, the social security system in Turkey is carried out under a single roof by the Social Security Institution.
