India cannot address its healthcare affordability challenge simply by pushing prices lower when the country needs significant investment in hospital infrastructure and clinical manpower, said Abhay Soi, Chairman and Managing Director, Max Healthcare, during his keynote address at the ET Healthcare Leaders Summit.
Soi argued that affordability and healthcare pricing need to be viewed separately. While affordability is linked to purchasing power and per capita income, the price of healthcare reflects input costs such as land, construction, manpower and the returns required to justify investment.
“If you want to make healthcare affordable, don’t try to make it cheaper. Try to increase the affordability index,” he said.
His central concern was the widening gap between India’s future healthcare demand and the capacity currently being created to serve it. Soi said the country has fewer than 100,000 private hospital beds, while existing private providers have announced roughly 30,000-40,000 additional beds over the next five years.
Even if this expansion materialises, he argued, capacity creation could remain substantially below what India will require as its population ages and demand for private healthcare rises.
Capacity shortage could become more acute
Soi pointed to India’s relatively young population as both an economic advantage and a future healthcare challenge. As this population ages over the next 15 years, healthcare utilisation is expected to increase significantly.At the same time, rising aspirations are changing expectations around healthcare infrastructure. Consumers who increasingly experience better standards across airports, metros and other public infrastructure are also demanding higher-quality healthcare environments, he said.
Soi estimated that if even a portion of India’s population seeks private healthcare at those standards, the country could eventually require 800,000-900,000 private beds.
Talent economics needs attention
Infrastructure, however, is only one side of the capacity equation. Soi flagged the migration of Indian doctors, nurses and technicians to overseas markets, where compensation can be substantially higher.He cautioned that healthcare cannot continue relying primarily on the idea that clinicians should accept lower economic rewards because the profession serves a larger social purpose. Making medical careers economically attractive, he argued, will be necessary to bring more talent into the sector and retain it.
Investment must remain open
Soi also pushed back against the argument that private equity or foreign investment inherently makes healthcare more expensive. In a competitive market without monopoly pricing power, he said, individual hospital operators cannot independently dictate prices.
Instead, he called for capital from multiple sources—including FDI, private equity, public markets, philanthropy and government—to participate in expanding healthcare infrastructure.
With demand set to rise, Soi’s argument was that affordability will ultimately depend not on suppressing investment or prices, but on substantially increasing healthcare supply while strengthening the purchasing power needed to access it.
