Comparative costs of family planning services and hospital-based maternity care in Turkey

The costs of running a recently established family planning program in the Turkish social security system were measured and compared with the costs of providing the medical services and nonmedical benefits for pregnant women. The undiscounted cost savings from averting pregnancy were estimated to exceed the program's recurrent costs by 17.6 to 1. Cost savings represent only 1 percent of all of the system's medical expenditures, but the family planning program is in an early stage, and potential savings could influence management decisionmaking regarding investments in specialized maternity hospitals.