The Art of Balance in Health Policy: Maintaining Japan's Low-Cost, Egalitarian SystemCompared to the rest of the world, Japan has a healthy population but pays relatively little for medical care. This book analyses how the health care works, and how it came into being. Taking a comparative perspective, the authors describe the politics of health care, the variety of providers, the universal health insurance system, and how the fee-schedule constrains costs at both the macro and micro levels. Special attention is paid to issues of quality and to the difficult problems of assuring adequate high-tech medicine and long-term care. Although the authors discuss the drawbacks to Japan's stringent cost-containment policy, they also keep in mind the possible implications for reform in the United States. Egalitarian values and a concern for 'balance' among constituents, the authors argue, are essential for cost containment as well as for access to health care. |
Other editions - View all
The Art of Balance in Health Policy: Maintaining Japan's Low-Cost ... John Creighton Campbell,Naoki Ikegami No preview available - 1998 |
The Art of Balance in Health Policy: Maintaining Japan's Low-Cost ... John Creighton Campbell,Naoki Ikegami No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
actually administrative American amount areas average beds benefits budget bureaucrats CAT scan Central Council Chapter Chōsa co-payment cost containment decision doctors drugs effect egalitarian elderly employees factors fee schedule Finance GMHI groups Health and Welfare health economics Health Insurance Bureau health insurance system health policy health-care spending hike Hoken Ikegami income increase inpatient interests Iryō Japan Medical Association Japanese health Japanese health-care system John Creighton Kitasato Shibasaburō less Liberal Democratic Party long-term long-term care long-term-care LTCI major medical-care medicine Ministry of Health negotiations noted nursing homes OECD office-based physicians officials outpatient overall paid parties patients payment percent pharmaceutical political population practice premiums private practitioners private-practice physicians problems professional programs providers reform regulations reimbursement relatively revenue sector Shakai SMHI social insurance subsidy surgery Tokyo United university hospitals