Erdogan: I advised Obama on healthcare reform

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan advised his American counterpart Barack Obama on healthcare reform after the former was asked by U.S. tourists to speak with their leader about the issue, a local daily reported Wednesday.

“Once I attended the Friday prayer at the Sultanahmet Mosque [Blue Mosque in Istanbul]. There were tourists. Some of them knew that I would be visiting the United States the following week. They asked me how we could be so successful in healthcare and wanted me to tell about it to Obama,” the Hurriyet Daily News quoted Erdogan as saying.

Erdogan told his story while attending the inauguration ceremony of a health complex in Ankara on March 18.

He added: “Indeed, I then talked about the issue with Mr. Obama. Of course, the negative reflex there [in the U.S.] made it really hard for Mr. Obama,” in reference to the Republicans who oppose the President’s attempt to introduce his healthcare reform - ObamaCare - in the United States.

Obama “could only solve the problem partly,” the Turkish leader stressed.

Erdogan also touted his country’s healthcare system when he said that European countries are interested to learn more about it.

“They try to take us as a model and build similar systems in their country. Don’t we have any deficiencies? We do, but now we are on the right path to success,” he said.

In 2003, Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party introduced a sweeping health reform program aimed at increasing the ratio of private to state health provision and making health care available to a larger share of the population.

The health care in Turkey used to be dominated by a centralized state system run by the Ministry of Health.