Private healthcare 20 times costlier than public healthcare: study

A study on healthcare costs in India has reaffirmed what everyone knows—that private hospitals are not affordable for the common man. Getting treatment in these hospitals is at least 20 times costlier than the healthcare provided in district government hospitals, reveals the study published in PLOS ONE on July 23.

In times when a daily expenditure of Rs 27 has been set as the cut off mark for deciding whether a person is below or above the poverty line, the outpatient treatment (OPD) services in private hospitals charge as high as Rs 2,213. The cost of visiting an OPD in district hospital is Rs 94 which is also quite high for a poor person if one considers the poverty line decided by the Planning Commission.

Similarly, in-patient stay cost is  Rs 394 per day in a district hospital, Rs 614 in a tertiary care hospital, Rs 1,959 in a charitable hospital and Rs 6,997 in a private hospital.

According to the research, the emergency visit cost is the lowest in  charitable hospitals (Rs 385) and highest in private hospitals (Rs 21,873). Surgical procedures are very expensive, both in private and charitable hospitals—Rs. 24,016 and Rs. 27,430 per procedure. The emergency visit cost at a private hospital is also exceptionally high compared to that of other hospitals.