Health care and beds in Japan

It is no doubt that Japan is the most successful country in public health care.

Japan has not only the highest average life expectancy but also the lowest rate of infant mortality in developed countries.

*Now, Hong Kong has the best in women’s longevity, because of 3.11 earthquake and Tsunami disaster in Japan.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19008870

(BBC news Asia)

*All data are collected in 2009, from OECD health data.

http://www.oecd.org/statistics/

Moreover total cost for health care in Japan is relatively low.

What does support high quality of health in Japanese? It is an interesting question. I think one of the reason is public health insurance system. All Japanese participate in official health insurance and national government is controlling the cost of it completely.

Mass media in Japan often report about faults in Japanese hospital aggressively. There are some problems in physicians and hospitals in Japan, indeed. But most of practitioners do well, I think.

On the other hand, there are a lot of hospitals in Japan.

  

The number of doctors is low in Japan. So many doctors are forced to work at night shift frequently.

*Data of Japan is collected in 2010. France does not reveal the data.

Too many hospitals make citizens dependent on hospital. Some hospitals have changed into salon for elder people. The bigger problem is that other industries than health care would not be developped for elder people. Nursing homes always short. Japan government had established national nursing care insurance since 2000. But financial resource is not adequate, I think. Unofficial nursing business is very poor in Japan. As a result, a lot of elder people who need not intensive medical care remains hospitalized.

This dilemma is the same in mental health situation. I will describe it in another opportunity.