Health Care Issues in the United States and Japan
Health Care Issues in the United States and Japan
Recent data show wide disparity between Japan and the United States in the effectiveness of their health care systems. Japan spends close to the lowest percentage of its gross domestic product on health care among OECD countries, the United States spends the highest, yet life expectancies in Japan are among the world’s longest. Clearly, a great deal can be learned from a comprehensive comparative analysis of health care issues in these two countries.
In Health Care Issues in the United States and Japan, contributors explore the structural characteristics of the health care systems in both nations, the economic incentives underlying the systems, and how they operate in practice. Japan’s system, they show, is characterized by generous insurance schemes, a lack of gatekeepers, and fee-for-service mechanisms. The United States’ structure, on the other hand, is distinguished by for-profit hospitals, privatized health insurance, and managed care. But despite its relative success, an aging population and a general shift from infectious diseases to more chronic maladies are forcing the Japanese to consider a model more closely resembling that of the United States.
In an age when rising health care costs and aging populations are motivating reforms throughout the world, this timely study will prove invaluable.
256 pages | 37 line drawings, 52 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2006
National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report
Asian Studies: East Asia
Economics and Business: Economics--Development, Growth, Planning, Economics--International and Comparative, Economics--Urban and Regional, Health Economics
Reviews
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
David A. Wise
1. Evaluating Japan’s Healthcare Reform of the 1990’s and Its Efforts to Cope With Population Aging 17
Naohiro Yashiro, Reiko Suzuki, and Wataru Suzuki
2. The U.S. Medical System for the Elderly 43
David M. Cutler and David A. Wise
3. An International Look at the Medical Care Financing Problem 69
David M. Cutler
4. Removing the Instability and Inequity of the Japanese Insurance System 83
Seiritsu Ogura, Tamotsu Kadoda, Makoto Kawamura
5. The Volume-Outcome in Japan: The case of Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) Volume on Mortality of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) Patients 113
Koichi Kawabuchi and Shigeru Sugihara
6. Market Concentration, Efficiency, and Quality in Japanese Home Help Industry 147
Yanfei Zhou and Wataru Suzuki
7. A Comparison of the Quality of Health Care in the United States and Japan: Treatment and Outcomes for Heart Attack Patients 165
Haruko Noguchi, Yuichiro Masuda, Masafumi Kuzuya, Akihiko Iguchi, Jeffery Geppert, and Mark McClellan
8. Geography and the Use of effective Health Care in the United States 195
Jonathan Skinner
9. Does Caregiving Affect Work? Evidence Based on Prior Labor Force Experience 209
Kathleen McGarry
10. Conjoint Analysis to Estimate the Demand for Nicotine Replacement Therapy in Japan 229
Seiritsu Ogura, Wataru Suzuki, Makoto Kawamura, and Tomatsu Kadoda
Contributors 247
Author Index 249
Subject Index 253