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In the late 20th century, international trade was projected as a tool for development with regard to global, social and political formations. Traditional political economic models claimed wealth generation through ostensibly maximising 'comparative advantages'. The free market economy model claims that the whole society will receive material welfare from such international trade, as benefits of economic growth 'trickle down' either directly through increased income or indirectly as the increased government revenues are spent on infrastructural development, health, education, etc. Convinced by this theoretical claim, India gradually changed its stance from opponent to proponent of international trade in services during the WTO Uruguay round negotiations. Accordingly, the Indian government's policy shifted towards capitalising India's 'comparative advantage' in medical tourism, while contending that foreign exchange and revenue earned can be used to subsidise the treatment of poor patients. Thus, promotion of trade liberalisation in hospital services has been viewed as a tool to fulfil the mandate of social justice and promote health equity. However, the present paper argues that, instead, the health inequities have only grown throughout the period of neo-liberal globalisation, while there is no empirical evidence to prove the 'trickling down' of any material benefit to the poor resulting from opening up the healthcare sector to privatisation and internationalisation. Moreover, while the Indian health policy shift facilitated the burgeoning of a highly variable private sector, the absence of a comprehensive regulatory framework and a just grievance redressal system has resulted in dubious quality and unethical practices in healthcare service provision in both the public and private sectors and inflation in healthcare costs. The paper will conclude reiterating the importance of healthcare as intrinsic to 'health capabilities' imperative for enjoying a meaningful life.

Cover -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Global Health and International Community -- Introduction -- The book's structure -- Part One - framing global ethics and international justice -- Part Two - practical challenges in global health governance -- Part Three - political and regulatory responses in global health -- Global health: Intellectual and practical challenges -- Part One: Framing Global Ethics and International Justice -- 1 On Some Difficulties for Any Theory of Global Health Justice Stephen R. Latham -- Introduction -- Theory -- Health -- Global -- Justice -- The positive uses of ambitious theory -- 2 Ethics and Global Health Inequalities Richard Ashcroft -- Introduction -- Comparison problems -- Connectedness and circumstances -- Health inequality and resource inequality -- Health inequalities and 'structural violence' -- Capabilities and health -- Conclusion -- 3 Why Bioethics Must Be Global Heather Widdows and Peter West-Oram -- Introduction -- Global ethics and bioethics -- The global requirement -- Healthcare and research and the global criteria -- Why the local/global debate continues -- A global ethics approach -- Conclusion -- 4 Needs, Obligations and International Relations for Global Health in the Twenty-First Century Solomon R. Benatar -- Introduction -- Disparities in health and well-being at a global level -- Global health -- Processes contributing to widening disparities in health -- A world in entropy -- Obligations -- What can be done? Some practical considerations -- Conclusions -- 5 Just Health, from National to Global: Claiming Global Social Protection Gorik Ooms and Rachel Hammonds -- Introduction -- Principles of national and global justice -- Global justice and the governance problem -- Conclusion.