Private hospitals should cross-subsidise treatment cost nothwithstanding the increase in the cost of equipment following rapid advancement in technology as government alone cannot meet the requirement of poor patients, union finance minister P Chidambaram said on Sunday. With the advancement of technology, the cost of the treatment was bound to increase in tune with the Intellectual Property Rights, he said. Since the government alone could not provide treatment at low cost or free of charge, the private hospitals should come forward to cross-subsidise treatment, like banks lending money at different interest rates for different sectors, he said.
