Centre tells Supreme Court it will act against overcharging by private hospitals

New Delhi: The Union government has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying that appropriate steps are being taken to stop the financial exploitation of patients by private hospitals, who charge heavily for medicines, tests and equipment.

The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers told the court that the government is fully aware of the practice of earning profits far above the printed price on medicines and medical supplies. According to the ministry, the problem is being examined in depth and policy decisions are being taken after consulting all stakeholders.

The government took this position during the hearing of a petition filed by Dr Sanjay Kulshreshtha. The petition cited a report by NITI Aayog and a former health minister, according to which about 6 crore families in the country fall below the poverty line every year because of the high cost of treatment.

The government said the ceiling prices of 935 essential medicines and the retail prices of 3,881 new medicines have been fixed so far. It said there is competition in India's pharmaceutical sector, but it has assured the court that new rules will be brought in soon to close this gap in the health sector.

In the affidavit, which concerns capping the prices of all medicines and medical supplies, the government accepted that patients and their relatives are in a very helpless state during treatment and are in no position to bargain with the hospital or have prices fixed. It said many hospitals exploit this helplessness. Although medicines are made cheaply in India, patients end up paying several times their cost of production.

The government placed figures on this practice before the court. On cancer drugs, hospitals earn profits of 170 per cent to 700 per cent or more. On other medical supplies used in treatment, margins of 100 per cent to 1,000 per cent are charged. Hospitals buy medicines from the companies that offer the highest margins and sell them to patients at the full printed price.

The hearings were held on September 29 and October 22, 2026, before a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta. Overcharging has also come to light in government schemes such as PMJAY and the Mahatma Phule Jan Arogya Yojana. Patients are meant to get free treatment under them, but it is often denied.