What's healthcare like in Turkey for pre-existing conditions?

[marjean]

A relocation to Istanbul is on the cards. My dh's prospective employer offers healthcare insurance as part of the package but this does not cover treatment for my 3yo squint and long-sightedness as it's a 'pre-existing condition'.

At the moment, she has check-ups every eight weeks or so and sight tests every 12 months.

Having relied on the NHS all my life, I am completely ignorant about private healthcare. I assume that there will be orthoptists in Istanbul who will take her on as a patient and we will pay for this ourselves. Is this how it works? Does anyone have any experience of this?

Don't have too much experience of this, but we were in istanbul for a year and a half and it was wonderful.
i think you are right, you will pay for additional treatment yourselves.
we found the private healthcare very good in istanbul, and for treatment that was covered (that was not too expensive) we paid for it, then claimed it back. For very expensive treatment, the insurance settles with the hospital direct.
The turkish seem to take their healthcare very seriously, so i am sure you will find the care and treatment you need.

There are first class health facilities in Istanbul. You will have to pay, but it will cost a lot less than similar treatment in a private hospital in the UK.

We lived there for 6 years with two young children, I was never worried about the quality of treatment they might have needed

Thanks for your replies. Having spoken to the prospective employer, they suggested that if we continue to pay NI contributions and have a UK address, we can still have treatment on the NHS when we come back to visit family. If this is true, we may be able to have the best of both worlds, which would be great.

I have been to Istanbul before, but without small children. It's great to know that others have found it to be a positive experience.

Thanks again
marj

It is immensely unreasonable for your DH's prospective employer not to offer full coverage for paediatrics; why don't you ask them what it would cost to purchase full paedatric health insurance as a top up to their existing scheme? It might not be very expensive and you could either ask your DH's employer to reconsider or else offer to pay for it yourself.

Bonsoir - thanks for your reply. Can I ask whether you know it's 'immensely unreasonable' from experience? Both DH and I are new to this - we've never worked abroad before and feel rather naive. The job and its' terms and conditions are good, as well as the financial packages around it. It seems strange to me that all healthcare (such as regular dental and eye check-ups) is not included.

My understanding is that the insurance package does not cover anything that we already know about. So, paediatric care is covered, as long as something happens to them once in Turkey. If you are saying that we could have existing conditions included as an 'add-on', it is certainly something we will look into.

Such a minefield!