OBJECTIVES: In Turkey, almost everyone is covered by General Health Insurance Scheme(GHIS) under Social Security Institution(SSI). GHIS provides a Basic Benefit Package(BBP) for patients to benefit from both public and private healthcare providers contracted with SSI. Patients are obliged to pay certain level co-pays for extra services as defined in the regulation.   Besides GHIS, patients could benefit from private health insurances(PHI) by paying relatively high level of premiums for different types of PHI packages.  Supplementary Health Insurance(SHI) law has been enacted in June 2012 and patients started to benefit from SHI by paying relatively lower premiums for  health care services that are not covered or partially covered by BBP. The objective is to evaluate the significance and potential of SHI in Turkey. METHODS: Regulations of SSI, OECD publications, International Investors Association’s Turkey Report and database of Insurance Association of Turkey are examined. RESULTS: Number of private hospitals has increased by 50% over 5 years and reached out 500 by 2012. Parallel with this growth, PHI sector market share has also increased. By 2012, number of people covered by PHI has reached out more than 2 million and the PHI market is expected to reach nearly USD 2 billion in 2015. Meanwhile, approximately 20 thousand people has covered by SHI since November 2012 and SHI is expected to reach 5 million people next 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: Public healthcare expenditure is continuously rising due to increased health demand, increased coverage and demographic changes. In order to assure a financially sustainable health care system, PHI could be an option and create source of funding for the health care expenditure. In this context, SHI will reduce the pressure on public health budget, create an area of growth for the private health insurance sector, allowing healthcare providers supplying both public and private healthcare to become more effective.