‘39 mn Indians bankrupt by medical bills’: IITian blames profit driven health collapse

Each year, 39 million Indians are thrust into deep poverty just trying to pay medical bills, while private equity firms rake in profits from the country’s crumbling healthcare system.

This grim assessment comes from Ram G Vallath, an IIT alumnus and growth coach, who posted a critique of India’s healthcare crisis on LinkedIn.

“In India, 39 million people get pushed annually into deep poverty due to catastrophic health expenditure,” Vallath wrote, adding that the nation suffers from “one of the lowest Government spends on healthcare in the world.”

With public hospitals starved of funding and personnel, patients flood private hospitals—where global investment firms are doubling down. “This is a goldmine for private equity,” Vallath claimed. “Of course, they want big returns for the big money.”

Those returns, he says, come at a human cost. Steep revenue targets for hospitals—and even individual doctors—have created a system where unnecessary tests and high-priced procedures are the norm. “Fear mongering by doctors” is part of the business model, he alleged, designed to boost profitability.

“The rich and those with company-paid insurance can afford this,” Vallath noted. But for the poor, the choice is brutal: either sell land and jewelry or take out high-interest loans from loan sharks. He says many Indian families remain trapped in medical debt for generations.

Meanwhile, talented doctors increasingly flock to high-paying corporate hospitals, deepening the public sector’s decline. “Not enough doctors and poor quality in public health system,” he wrote.

Vallath’s solution? Greater government investment and strict oversight of private hospitals. “What is freedom of the nation,” he asked, “if the very people who make the nation cannot even afford basic health needs of their loved ones?”