Why Sanjay Gupta turned down Obama

Dr Sanjay Gupta, who withdrew his name from consideration as the surgeon general of the United States on Thursday, revealed that he took the decision to spend more time with his family and to continue practicing neurosurgery.

During an interview with CNN's Larry King, Gupta said that he was "incredibly flattered, humbled by the consideration even for the position". It was a 'tough decision' to withdraw his name, he told King.

"My wife is imminent with our third child. This job that we have collectively takes us away from our children for so many years at once. And I just didn't feel like I should do that now," he explained.

Gupta added that he wanted to continue practicing neurosurgery and that his decision was prompted by the consideration that "being surgeon general, I probably would not be able to continue to practice surgery".

When King asked Gupta to recommend someone else for the top job, Gupta said, "I think whoever takes that job really does have to make it a higher-profile job".

Speaking about the high costs of health care in the US and the Barack Obama administration's efforts to address it, he said, "You can't fix the health care system without bringing down costs of health care overall".

He told King that during his recent visit to India, he had found that good-quality health care cost much cheaper there than in America. "How can they offer good-quality care? What do we have to learn? And how can we use this to help reform our health care system," he said.

Gupta also raised the issue of Americans traveling overseas to seek cheaper health care facilities. On the possibility of the Obama administration introducing a new health care system, Gupta stated, "It's going to take a long time. I think that it may not even happen within this first term, if there is a second term for him. So I think it's not going to be something that happens certainly overnight".