Two routes pay for care: social security agreements cover urgent cases only for insured visitors, with France the exception, and private insurance either bills the clinic directly through a provision request or reimburses you after you pay. Check your country's agreement before you need it.
When you fall ill while wintering in Türkiye, you need to find the right door quickly — and know who will pay before you sit in a waiting room.
Where do you go first: 112, acil, family doctor or state hospital?
The first number to know is 112: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says an ambulance in Türkiye is called round the clock, free of charge, on that number. When the situation looks like an emergency, call 112 before choosing a facility.
For everything else, a community channel's reference guide dated 7 May 2022 maps the three doors you will meet on signs and in apps. Acil is the round-the-clock emergency department; sağlık ocağı is the clinic with a family doctor; devlet hastanesi is the state hospital. The guide gives the terms, not a rule about which one to use for a given symptom, so ask at the facility or a pharmacy if you are unsure.
Check whether your home country has a medical agreement with Türkiye
Whether your home country's insurance can be used at all depends on a list kept by SGK, the Social Security Institution. According to SGK's official page, medical care provisions exist in Türkiye's social security agreements with 19 countries: Germany, Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, France, Croatia, the Netherlands, Italy, Montenegro, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, North Macedonia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Tunisia.
But the presence of an agreement is not the same as coverage. For Azerbaijan, Italy and Tunisia, SGK notes that the medical care part of the agreement is not yet applied. Do not count on those three when planning how a winter illness will be paid for.
Expect urgent care only, unless you are from France
For insured visitors from the agreement countries, SGK's coverage has a hard limit: when you are in Türkiye as a tourist, help is provided through SGK only in cases that require urgent intervention. France is the exception to this rule.
What happens after the urgent part is over is where the bill can appear. The German liaison office DVKA explains that after urgent care, further treatment may have to be paid privately. That means an agreement with your home country does not by itself mean a planned appointment or a follow-up will be covered.
How to turn your healthcare entitlement form into a YUPASS number
To use an agreement, you first turn your home fund's healthcare entitlement form into a YUPASS number. SGK's procedure is to take the form to the nearest SGİM/SGM — the provincial social security directorate or local social security centre — and you receive the YUPASS number, which you then show at the medical facility. If you forget the number, you can find it through e-Devlet, Türkiye's official online government services portal, or at an SGİM/SGM.
The form has a shelf life. When the form from your foreign insurance fund has expired, you cannot receive help through SGK with it: you must present a new form, or ask SGİM/SGM to request one from the foreign fund on your behalf.
For people insured in Germany, the form is called T/A 11 in the Turkish Foreign Ministry's table, and a German Foreign Ministry memo gives the same name. But the Turkish page that carries this table rests on repealed provisions of Law No. 506, so confirm the T/A 11 requirement at SGİM/SGM before relying on it.
Private insurance: how payment is agreed in two different clinics
In a contracted private clinic, the hospital itself sends the insurer a request for provision — the insurer's pre-approval step. Once the insurer approves, you continue treatment without paying out of pocket. This is how two insurers' pages describe the process as of 23 November 2025.
In a non-contracted private clinic, you pay the bill yourself and then submit documents to your insurer for reimbursement. One insurer's page, as of 15 December 2020, said to submit within one week and expected payment 2–3 weeks after review.
When to ask SGİM/SGM or your insurer before paying
Before you pay, use the rules already set out to ask the right questions at SGİM/SGM: is the entitlement form still valid, does your case fall under the urgent-care limit, and what will follow-up treatment cost if your agreement does not cover it. SGİM/SGM can request a new form from your home fund, and e-Devlet or SGİM/SGM can recover a forgotten YUPASS number — but confirm the form's status first.
If you are at a non-contracted private clinic, before you pay, ask your own insurer for its submission deadline and the documents it needs.