Games Hospitals Play

Decoding Your Private Healthcare Experience

Abantika Ghosh (Author)

Games Hospitals Play

Decoding Your Private Healthcare Experience

Abantika Ghosh (Author)

Ebook (Epub & Mobi) £6.50

Ebook (Epub & Mobi) £6.50

Ebook (Epub & Mobi) £6.50

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Navigating India's private healthcare system can feel like playing a Sisyphean and rigged game.

In Games Hospitals Play, veteran health journalist and public policy professional Abantika Ghosh exposes the shadowy economics of India's private healthcare industry. This isn't a story of a few rotten eggs – it is a systemic breakdown exposing how patient vulnerability is the fodder for the profit-driven healthcare industry. Mining through a mountain of court documents, backed by insider accounts and investigative reports, Ghosh decodes hidden markups, surge pricing for surgeries, unnecessary procedures, and corporate pressures that turn every illness into a profit opportunity. She reveals how hospital packages are designed like experiential commodities, why your insurance policy might not be enough and how over-testing has become a tool for revenue generation. A playbook to fight back, Games Hospitals Play is a call to action for every patient, caregiver, policymaker and healthcare professional who believes health ought not to be a commodity.

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Product details

Published	18 Nov 2025
Format	Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition	1st
Pages	288
ISBN	9789361310447
Imprint	Bloomsbury India
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Author

Abantika Ghosh

Abantika Ghosh is a journalist and public policy p…

Games Hospitals Play is an exposition of the grammar of healthcare inflation. It is important for both end users and policymakers to understand this script and for the latter to explore regulatory pathways that can deal with it. This is a crucial step in India's journey towards Universal Health Coverage

Amitabh Kant, Former CEO, NITI Aayog; India's ex-G20 Sherpa
In Games Hospitals Play, Abantika Ghosh shines an outsider lens on insider perspectives about business practices of private hospitals. It is a must-read for all but most of all for policymakers who need to acknowledge, understand and deal with healthcare inflation urgently

C.K. Mishra, Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
This book, by a sharply observant and incisively analytical health journalist with vast experience, profiles the many ways by which heavily invested and highly equipped private hospitals take advantage of trusting patients – inflating costs while avoiding accountability. By providing several real-life stories of patient experiences, doctors' insights, legal disputes, regulatory failures and false claims, the book becomes eminently readable besides carrying an assurance of unalloyed authenticity. After being cautioned about the many potholes on the road to private healthcare, the reader is also provided a very useful GPS that can guide a lay person's journey to safely reach the destination of appropriate and affordable healthcare

K. Srinath Reddy, Former Head of Cardiology, AIIMS; Chancellor, PHFI University of Public Health Sciences
In Games Hospitals Play, Abantika Ghosh casts a sharp and unflinching light on the hidden practices of India's private hospitals. Drawing on her long reporting experience and extensive fieldwork, she reveals how vulnerable patients are too often overcharged and underserved – while also highlighting the many ethical doctors who stand firm against these pressures. Her insights resonate with my own experience of engaging with the healthcare industry during the establishment of Ayushman Bharat PMJAY. This is a courageous, insightful and timely book that will not only empower patients but also challenge policymakers to strengthen regulation, accountability and trust in healthcare

Indu Bhushan, Former CEO, National Health Authority