Turkish Labor Law
General health insurance (GSS) is an insurance that covers all employees as well as the whole society, including those who do not work or have no income. Everyone must be covered by general health insurance in order to receive treatment in public hospitals and benefit from the health benefits offered by the state. The number of days insured to benefit from these services is stipulated in the provisions of the relevant legislation.
Who is Considered as a Part-Time Employee?
- Part-time employees: These employees work on a part-time contract, at most two-thirds of the weekly working hours of the workplace they work. In workplaces where full-time employees work 45 hours a week, part-time employees can work for a maximum of 30 hours.
- On-call employees: When the employee is called to work when a work need arises with a part-time employment contract, these employees are entitled to wages as specified by the part-time contract, regardless of whether they are employed with the employer for the specified time.
- Hourly employees: It refers to the persons who have an agreement with the employer on an hourly wage and earn as much as the hour they worked, and the number of premium days calculated over the total working hour is less than 30 days.
- Employees in household services: The provisions regarding the insurance of these people are determined based on the number of days worked; more or less than 10 days. Except for full-time employees, those who work in domestic services for less than 30 days a month may be considered within this scope.
Legal Regulations upon GSS Premium Completion
For people who work less than 30 days a month, the days they do not work are reported to the SSI as missing days. Employers are not supposed to pay premiums for these days. Therefore, the days of the month have to be completed to 30 days. In some exceptional cases, it is possible to benefit from health services without having to complete the missing days to 30 days.
In the 88th Article of the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law numbered 5510, it was stated that the general health insurance premiums of the people working less than 30 days should be completed to 30 days. This requirement was initially for working less than 30 days, but was later modified for working less than 20 days. As of April 1st, the last regulation was made with the Law No. 7226 Amending Some Laws.
With the latest regulation, for those who work in home services for more than 10 days, the obligation to complete the general health insurance premiums to 30 days was removed. For part-time employees who work 8 days or less, it has become mandatory to complete the GSS premiums to 30 days.
In Which Cases Should I Complete My GSS Premiums?
- Part-time employees have to complete their general health insurance premiums for 30 days in order to benefit from health services, if they work less than 8 days a month. Workers who work more than 8 days a month do not need to pay GSS premiums. These people are considered within the scope of general health insurance since they work for more than 8 days, even if their general health insurance premium payments are not 30 days a month.
- Likewise, on-call employees and those with a total working days of 8 or less in a month must complete their general health insurance premiums to 30 days.
- Those who receive wages for hourly and whose total working days in a month are 8 days or less also have to pay general health insurance premium for the missing days.
- Finally, even if the person is employed part-time for less than 8 days, if an insured person is their dependent, they do not have to complete the general health insurance premium for 30 days. For example, a person whose spouse is insured under 4/a does not have to complete the general health insurance premium due to the days he/she does not work during the month.
- Those who are insured for the whole month by paying optional insurance do not also pay general health insurance premiums.
- Employees subject to private funds do not have to pay general health insurance premium.
- The obligation to complete their general health insurance premiums to 30 days for those who work in household services for 10 days or more was also removed.
