A parliamentary committee has recommended a review and the rationalisation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limits governing the operation and acquisition of existing private hospitals, warning that aggressive corporatisation and the influx of foreign capital could push up healthcare costs and undermine the affordability of medical care.
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Foreign investment in private hospitals will make treatment unaffordable: RJD The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, headed by Samajwadi Party (SP) Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav, presented the 176th report on ‘Affordability and Accessibility of Healthcare Facilities in Public and Private Sector’, which distinguishes between foreign investment in hospital operations and investment in healthcare manufacturing. It has recommended the establishment of autonomous, efficiently managed public multi-speciality hospitals in every revenue division to reduce patients’ dependence on major cities, and minimise travel for tertiary care. The committee has also called for hospital-level ethics committees to examine professional fees and for stronger regulatory oversight of public-private partnerships to ensure that commitments to provide affordable care are honoured.
The growing presence of foreign capital in private hospital chains was facilitating the acquisition of cost-effective, mid-sized hospitals by larger corporate entities, the committee said, and warned that such “aggressive corporatisation” was transforming healthcare from a public service into a “purely capitalistic enterprise”, with the potential to inflate the cost of medical procedures and trigger price increases across the healthcare ecosystem. Private hospitals receiving government incentives should also consider cross-subsidisation, with revenues from higher-paying patients, including international patients, helping subsidise treatment for poorer patients, the committee said.
