ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE INDICATORS WITH CLUSTERING METHOD, A STUDY ON OECD COUNTRIES

Abstract

Health and Quality of Life (SDG3), one of the Sustainable Development Goals implemented by the United Nations Development Programme, aims to ensure that everyone has access to health services at the lowest possible cost. The increase in catastrophic health expenditure due to the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the importance of Universal Health Coverage, which is one of the goals to be achieved through SDG3. This study aims to determine Turkey's relative level of development among OECD countries in terms of Universal Health Coverage goals. In this study, cluster analysis, which is one of the multivariate statistical analysis methods, was used to analyse the countries with similar characteristics among OECD countries in terms of Universal Health Coverage sub-targets. In the analysis, hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering analyses were carried out using data from 34 OECD countries. Three clusters were obtained in line with the results of both analyses. The main limitation of the study is that the data are not published every year. Compared to other countries in the cluster in which Turkey is included, it can be stated that in order to achieve universal health coverage, the quality and diversity of services included in the social security system should be increased and payment mechanisms should be improved in such a way as to reduce financial catastrophes.