Overview
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare submitted its 176th report on the Affordability and Accessibility of Healthcare Facilities in Public and Private Sector. Chaired by Ram Gopal Yadav, the committee warned that aggressive corporatisation of private hospitals, driven by FDI, could raise treatment costs and hurt affordability.
Key Developments
- Recommend a strict review and rationalisation of FDI in the operation and acquisition of existing private hospitals.
- Encourage foreign capital in manufacturing of medical devices, consumables and rare‑disease medicines, but keep tighter scrutiny on hospital ownership.
- Suggest incentives – tax holidays, soft loans, subsidised land and electricity – to set up multi‑speciality hospitals in tier‑2, tier‑3 and rural areas.
- Propose a mandatory increase in reserved beds for BPL, EWS and AB‑PMJAY beneficiaries from 10% to 20%.
- Call for autonomous public multi‑speciality hospitals in every revenue division to act as a price regulator.
- Recommend PPP models for advanced technologies in underserved regions and cross‑subsidisation of poorer patients by higher‑paying ones.
Important Facts
The 80th round of the NSS shows the average cost of a private‑hospital stay at ₹50,508