Issues in Japanese Health Policy and Medical Expenditure

This paper first discusses the past patterns of the national medical care expenditure and its future path. About 30 percent of the past growth was due to population aging and the remaining 70 percent was due to technological change. The medical expenditure is expected to increase by about 20 percent in 20 years due to population aging. The latter half of the paper focuses on a reform plan of the health insurance for the elderly and presents some policy recommendations. One of the most serious problems in the health care market is that virtually no agents evaluate the quality of medical services or help improve it. It has not been clarified whether the rising medical costs are the result of waste or of necessity. Reform should attempt to make insurers play a more active role in the health care market as informed agents of patients. Dramatic outsourcing of the health insurance business to the private sector should be promoted.

Forthcoming in Toshiaki Tachibanaki ed., Sosical Security in Japan, Edward Elger. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Second International Forum of the Collaboration Projects held in Tokyo on March 18-20, 2001.

Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University

2003-01

English(eng)

technical report

VoR

12

Discussion papers / Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University

https://hdl.handle.net/10086/16942