Universal Healthcare System

The Japanese spend half as much on healthcare as do Americans, but still they live longer (Economist, 2011). The healthcare system in Japan provides healthcare to all of its citizens for little to no charge at all. Most citizens have access to medical services including preventative health, prenatal care and infectious disease maintenance. Assistance for payment of these medical services is offered through a universal healthcare system known as Kaihoken. The healthcare system was established to provide equality of access through government regulated fees. The average citizen usually pays only about 30% of all medical costs while the government pays the remainder. On the contrary, the U.S. is predominantly run by the private sector costing the
The core social insurance is a mandatory system that ensures the livelihood of citizens by providing benefits for medical events such as injury, disease, childbirth, old-age and disability. All citizens must be covered by one of the following insurance plans; 1) employee’s health insurance for employed individuals, 2) national health insurance for self-employed individuals and those out of employment, and 3) the healthcare system for later-stage elderly for the people aged 75 years or older (JNA, 2006). Each of these plans operate through government regulation and requires only a minimal out-of-pocket each month based on a three tier system which takes income and age into consideration. Aside from the monthly out-of-pocket a patient may also be responsible for paying a percentage of consultation fees to the healthcare institute where services were rendered. Healthcare institutions may then submit a medical claim to the insurers to receive a reimbursement. Healthcare expenditures are paid on a fee-for-service
and Japan. One of the major differences would be that, in Japan, the government restricts healthcare companies from making any profit. The government also regulates how much money insurance companies have to spend for procedures, physicians earn annually and the price of medications. Furthermore, the government requires healthcare coverage to be available to every citizen regardless of health status. The U.S. healthcare system is basically the opposite of that in Japan. The health insurance companies in the U.S. seek to make as much money as possible and insure only those who are “high profit and low risk,” denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. (Long, 2009). A benefit to the U.S. healthcare system would be the access to state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, but at a cost to the