Medical expenses on the rise

According to the “Overview of national health expenditure,” the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced on November 14th that the total national health expenditure has continued to increase and It has been increased by 3.1% again this year. Japanese government focus on issues of pension plans for retirees but the growing health care costs is becoming to be a much more serious problem in Japan. Japan has so called universal health care insurance system. Japanese citizens usually have health insurance through the government or their employers. It is excellent that almost everybody has health insurance in Japan and I was so surprised to meet so many people here in the United States they didn’t have a medical insurance..

Typically people need to pay 30% of their total medical expenditure and the rest, 70% is covered by the insurance. Because of an increasing number of aging people, Japanese government should be aware of the costs and there are no young people who can pay income taxes to support a large number of elderly in the future. As I wrote about Japan’s declined birth rate, this situation will continue to get worse.