If the Supreme Court’s main concern is ensuring right to healthcare, that is a very complex issue that simply cannot be solved just by capping consultation fees and bed charges. The biggest hurdle in my opinion is the grossly skewed distribution of clinics, nursing homes and hospitals across rural and urban areas. Large swathes of the population in rural India have no access to even primary care. At the same time, big cities are swamped with more hospitals than the local population needs, leading to cut-throat competition and unethical practises just to survive. The reason for this is a big difference in the quality of life between these two places. Poor infrastructure, lack of good schools, employment opportunities for spouses, comfort amenities–all of these factors cause doctors to flock to the cities and grind it out rather than go to underserved areas where they will be not only be respected more, but earn more as well.
Solving discrepancy in healthcare access and availability is more than just making it cheap. It will require a general upliftment of the underserved regions. Capping charges is not going to do it.
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