Over 6 in 10 families who availed of private hospital services in the last 3 years and surveyed had issues with bills and found prices of tests and treatments to be excessively high

August 12, 2026, New Delhi: The affordability of private healthcare is back at the centre of national policy debate. On August 7, 2026, the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, chaired by Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav, M.P., Rajya Sabha, tabled in Parliament its 176th Report on “Affordability and Accessibility of Healthcare Facilities in Public and Private Sector”, making 368 recommendations. The Committee pulled up the private hospital sector for opaque billing, unnecessary diagnostics and wide, unexplained variation in what patients are charged for the same procedure, and recommended the immediate formulation of a mechanism to standardise and cap the costs of essential treatments, diagnostics and routine procedures across all private hospitals. It also asked the Government to mandate absolute price transparency prior to admission and to set up a unified, fast-track grievance redressal ombudsman to audit excessive billing and resolve insurance claim disputes in the private sector.

The Committee’s concerns closely mirror what citizens have been reporting. Citing the 80th round of the National Sample Survey (January–December 2025), the panel noted that the average cost of hospitalisation was Rs 6,631 in a government hospital against Rs 50,508 in a private hospital – nearly eight times higher – while childbirth in a private hospital involved an average out-of-pocket expenditure of Rs 37,630 as against Rs 2,299 in a public facility. The panel also flagged that out-of-pocket expenditure has risen again to 43.4% of total health expenditure in 2022-23 and recommended that it be brought below 30%, and separately recommended a legally binding regulatory framework to standardise rates for common medical procedures and diagnostic tests across all private healthcare providers, backed by mandatory compliance audits of private clinical establishments.

Against this backdrop, LocalCircles conducted a national survey to understand what families who availed of private hospital services in the last 3 years actually experienced with their bills. The survey received over 23,000 responses from citizens located across 306 districts of India.

Over 6 in 10 families who availed of private hospital services in the last 3 years and surveyed had issues with bills and found prices of tests and treatments to be excessively high

To understand the specific problems families encounter with private hospital bills, the survey asked, “What all issues have you or your family members faced with private hospital bills in the last 3 years?” This was a multiple-choice question, and respondents could select more than one option, so the responses do not add up to 100%. Out of 23,084 who responded, 68% cited “excessively high prices of treatment”, 63% “excessively high prices of tests”, 56% “excessively high charges of facilities like ICU and/or room”, 51% “excessively high prices of medicines and consumables”, 49% “unnecessary doctor consultation charges included”, 43% “excessively high doctor consultation charges”, 40% “over billing of quantity of medicines and consumables used”, and 40% “other unexpected or unknown charges”. Only 14% said they had not experienced any such issue. In effect, over 6 in 10 families who availed of private hospital services in the last 3 years had issues with their bills, with a majority finding the prices of tests and treatments excessively high.

Survey findings validate the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s concerns

The survey findings map closely onto the specific practices flagged by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in its 176th Report. The 56% of respondents who reported “excessively high charges of facilities like ICU and/or room” speak directly to the Committee’s call for standardised and capped rates and for far greater transparency in what private hospitals charge for rooms, ICU and routine procedures. The 40% who reported over billing of the quantity of medicines and consumables used and the 40% who reported other unexpected or unknown charges correspond to the Committee’s recommendation for mandatory price disclosure before admission and for AI-enabled financial surveillance tools to monitor billing anomalies and audit exorbitant out-of-pocket costs. The 49% who said unnecessary doctor consultation charges were included in their bills align with the Committee’s concern about unnecessary diagnostics and unwarranted interventions, for which it has recommended mandatory compliance audits of private clinical establishments.

LocalCircles will be sharing the findings of this survey with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, NITI Aayog and the National Health Authority so that citizen experience is factored in as the Government acts on the Committee’s recommendations for capping and standardising private hospital charges, mandating pre-admission price disclosure, and creating a fast-track ombudsman for excessive billing and insurance claim disputes.

Survey Demographics

The survey received over 23,000 responses from citizens located across 306 districts of India. 69% respondents were men while 31% respondents were women. 46% of respondents were from tier 1, 30% from tier 2 and 24% respondents were from tier 3, 4 & 5 districts. The survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform, and all participants were validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.