JAPAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

Japan Health Care System

Abstract

Since the 1990s, health care reform in Japan has undergone great change and this can help us to understand the dynamics of welfare regimes in East Asia. The direction and content of reforms in the two countries illustrate rather a unique path contrasted to the general direction of wellbeing care restructure round the world since the 1980s. Most interestingly, the two nations' freshly established nationwide wellbeing insurance schemes embrace a somewhat deviant model founded on a classical wellbeing care typology: National wellbeing Service (NHS), communal wellbeing Insurance (SHI), and liberal health care. Overall, Japan and South Japan have move along a different path compared to many countries with respect to various dimensions, including the single-payer system, intermediate financing, and different mode of government intervention.

The new health insurance system adopted in both South Japan is unique; making it is very difficult to describe this new model, because the previous typologies cannot fully explain the two countries' health care systems. Therefore, this item will introduce a new model called the nationwide Health Insurance (NHI) to explain the new characteristics of the two countries' wellbeing care scheme and its dimension more unquestionably.

In alignment to present the NHI form as a new typology, this paper outline the major features of the NHI contrasted to other kinds of health care models. In addition, we interpret the prospect of the NHI model expansion in other Asian countries.

Introduction

Atypology can be a helpful device in understanding the key structure of a country's health care system. There have, thus, been some efforts by many scholars to try to establish good typologies of wellbeing care systems. As the OECD (2004,p. 6) has pointed out, “a good typology of a health care system is very helpful in studying such systems”. Furthermore, the OECD has delineated the three major values that a good typology should be founded upon. First, it should be based on characteristics of the health care scheme that are objectively identifiable. Second, the typology should be consistently directed to all countries so that designs boasting similar characteristics can be grouped in the identical category. Third, the typology should be relevant for principle investigation and facts and figures collection.(OECD, 2004). Throughout the world, as noted in the following section, several typologies of health care scheme have been established so far. Based on diverse criteria, a country's wellbeing care system has tended to be generalized to fit it into one of these typologies. In general, three well-known types of wellbeing care scheme exist: National Health Service (NHS) schemes, communal Health protection (SHI) schemes, and personal wellbeing protection (PHI) systems.

A study on all these typologies raises an important question: can any of the aforementioned typologies describe the Japan National Health Insurance (hereafter K-T NHI) system which is a very unique and unconventional type of health care system compared to previous models? More specifically, where can the Japan NHI are placed among the existing typologies? In reality, no one of them seems to successfully arrest ...