The country could continue its success in the sector and provide health services to 500,000 foreign nationals by 2020 and earn $10 billion, Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, chairman of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, or TOBB, and Foreign Economic Relations Board, or DEİK, told a press meeting late last week while introducing the Health Tourism Business Council, or SAİK.

"We will work so that foreign health insurance companies include Turkish health facilities within their policies. We will make efforts so that many countries send their patients to Turkey, such as Kuwait. We will follow up the remarks of our prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to make Turkey a health partner of the United States," he said.

Around 220 million people, defined as baby-boomers, will enter a period of old age by 2015, Hisarcıklıoğlu, adding that such an aging population would place pressure on the budgets of countries due to the increase in the need for health services.

"Some 43 million people in the United States do not have health insurance while another 120 million people [there] do not have medical coverage for teeth-related treatment,” he said. “It would not be a surprise to see an increase in health tourism from countries such as the United States. Many individuals in the middle and upper classes will travel to other countries for high-quality medical services.”