| dc.description.abstract | In the late 20th century, international trade was projected as a tool for development with
regard to global, social and political formations. Traditional political economic models
claimed wealth generation through ostensibly maximising ‘comparative advantages’. The
free market economy model claims that the whole society will receive material welfare
from such international trade, as benefits of economic growth ‘trickle down’ either
directly through increased income or indirectly as the increased government revenues are
spent on infrastructural development, health, education, etc. Convinced by this theoretical
claim, India gradually changed its stance from opponent to proponent of international
trade in services during the WTO Uruguay round negotiations. Accordingly, the Indian
government’s policy shifted towards capitalising India’s ‘comparative advantage’ in
medical tourism, while contending that foreign exchange and revenue earned can be used
to subsidise the treatment of poor patients. Thus, promotion of trade liberalisation in
hospital services has been viewed as a tool to fulfil the mandate of social justice and
promote health equity. However, the present paper argues that, instead, the health
inequities have only grown throughout the period of neo-liberal globalisation, while there
is no empirical evidence to prove the ‘trickling down’ of any material benefit to the poor
resulting from opening up the healthcare sector to privatisation and internationalisation.
Moreover, while the Indian health policy shift facilitated the burgeoning of a highly
variable private sector, the absence of a comprehensive regulatory framework and a just
grievance redress system has resulted in dubious quality and unethical practices in
healthcare service provision in both the public and private sectors and inflation in
healthcare costs. The paper will conclude with reiterating the importance of healthcare as
intrinsic to ‘health capabilities’ imperative for enjoying a meaningful life. | en_GB |
