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by CraigJPerry
2400 days ago
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Japan's system is interesting. Perhaps one of the most successful in the world. Their life expectancy has gone up which obviously means the amount of care to be provided goes up. Costs haven't followed suit and the other side of the equation - outcomes, has also gotten better (comparing against 1990 since that's the first result set i can see attributed to the MHLW in JP) The challenges of their economy are well known yet they've pulled off what other countries probably would not be able to. Yet they spend approximately half what America does - and for better outcomes. |
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While their healthcare costs are much lower than eg the US, Japan is currently in the middle of a healthcare cost crisis in fact:
"annual health-care expenditure grew at a pace 40 times faster than the economy from 2000 to 2016." [2]
Their healthcare expenditures have more than doubled in the last ~27 years, while their economy hasn't expanded and their population hasn't expanded. While I don't consider a 100% increase over 27 years to be extremely alarming, especially in the healthcare field, it's a substantial increase given the context that Japan is dealing with (budget buried in debt costs, declining standard of living due to debasing of the Yen due to debt, aging population, zero population growth, net negative economic expansion over 25-30 years).
While the US has the ability to cut a lot of unnecessary fat in healthcare to bring down costs, I don't see how Japan is going to be able to do that without harming care (as their system is already well run). The US also has had dramatic economic growth during the time in which Japan has had none, including adding an economy the size of Japan to itself in just the last six years.
Nippon.com, Oct 2019: "Growing Medical Woes: Japan’s Healthcare Expenditures Rise to Record ¥42.6 Trillion"
[0] https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00561/growing-medical-...
Bloomberg, May 2018: "Japan Seeks Private Sector's Help With Blowout Health Costs"
"Faced with an aging crisis that’s projected to push up heath-care spending by more than 50 percent in the decade through 2025, the economy ministry is leading efforts for local governments to draw on the expertise of private companies."
[1] https://outline.com/59VNKA
Bloomberg, Dec 2018: "World’s longest-living citizens are causing medical costs to soar."
[2] http://archive.is/OxW7n