Fukuda apologizes for insufficient health care insurance for elderly

Friday 13th June, 07:16 AM JST

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DoctorTofu at 10:04 AM JST - 13th June

jerseyboy - you're right, I haven't received any medical treatment in the U.S. I don't think the fact that in Japan ambulances are being turned away is not the fault of the system though. In many other countries (are there ANY countries apart from the U.S. without government-provided health care by the way? I honestly don't know) "socialized medicine" (what a beautiful and not at all emotionally charged way to put it, right?) works quite well - more or less.

Of course, there are problems everywhere, but in general I believe that when we turn the objective of health care from caring for health to making profit, bad things tend to happen...
thundercat at 10:42 AM JST - 13th June

jerseyboy,

'government run' hospitals?

The problem is that most aren't government run, but private.
Alphaape at 12:03 PM JST - 13th June

I think the best way to fix the systems in both the US and Japan is to go with a privatized method with closer government scrutiny. If you have private insurance that is affordable, then people will probably have a better chance of getting care. But, oversight needs to be administered over the insurance companies so that they will not try to go for the money only and short change people by denying coverage after you have paid premiums over the years. Or to arbitraily drop them if your medical expenses get too high.

Also, a cap needs to be put on how much you can sue for malpractice. I know we all consider ourselves and loved ones invaluable, and if a mistake happens we would want to be compensated. But, going for excessive amounts, on punative cases only makes the doctors more likely to not perform difficult procedures, and since they have to pay higher malpractice, the cost of health care will probably go up.

Reform the insurance industry, and a lot of these issues will begin to clear up. I find it hard to believe that if you are a healthy person for 30 years, and paid your premiums, and then get sick only to have your insurer tell you that your procedure is not covered or deny you coverage because you would be bad for the bottom line needs to have their business license revoked. They took your money to make money, and they now don't want to pay out in services.
nisegaijin at 12:23 PM JST - 13th June

DoctorTofu,

Public health care looks good on paper. Everyone can get medical care for cheap, and old people can live longer without paying much! Great. But unfortunately the concept of Santa Claus does not work in free market economy.

With Japan's aging population the costs inflicted on younger so they have to pay for all the old people's health care. Combined with my company I pay 80000 yen a month for health care! It's cheaper for me to get sick! Yet, against my constitutional right of freedom of choice I am forced to be told how to live and have to pay for this crap. And I don't even get full coverage for that. To compare, Bupa charges 10000 per month and you get full coverage. That's the market rate. That's what I should pay. Why charge me 8 times that and provide worse service? How much more young hard working generation has to be ripped off to save some old people who they don't even know.

On a larger scale, we see hospitals closing, shortage of nurses, shortage of doctors for Christ's sake! Doctors who are still around are underpaid and not motivated, they don't care whether they save the patient or not.

The worst problem with public health care is that there is no way of getting out it without a huge sacrifice: basically loss of all benefits for old people.

Not fair to them, but current health care is definitely not fair to the young people, it's services are bad, and it's bankrupting the economy.
DoctorTofu at 12:33 PM JST - 13th June

nisegaijin - good and valid points, all of them, but I'm afraid that private health care also looks great only on paper... In an ideal world, where insurance companies were not putting most of their time and energy looking for preexisting conditions to deny your coverage, the free market system would be perfect. Unfortunately, this world is anything but ideal.

The thing is, essentially the choice here is to either trust a group of sleazebags in the government, or another group of sleazebags running mega-corporations... I honestly don't know which one is better.
electric2004 at 12:56 PM JST - 13th June

Soon Fukuda might belong to the mentioned elderly group. Then he had be better prepared to live with it.
tkoind2 at 01:02 PM JST - 13th June
The lot of them are worthless, useless and lacking in any ability to govern or to solve Japan's problems. Fukuda is just the most visible good for nothing leader at the moment.
1. They decide to charge already struggling elderly with more fees for medical insurance. Then 2. they take away travel funding for handicapped and disabled people. Clearly picking on two relatively defenseless groups.
What's next from the Diet Genius pool? Require the mentally ill to treat themselves. How about making school kids work for their educations. They ar pretty helpless and won't fight back. And why not tax foreigners 2x the standard taxes. Anything but deal with the real problems or offer up real solutions.

So here's some help for you guys. 1. Open Japan to more immigation and actively recruit people to come live and work here. They will pay taxes and help support your health and social welfare programs.
1. Cut some of the fat out of the government like Osaka's governor has done. Save some money.
2. Stop paving over every square centimeter of Japan. Use some of that money to develop more small business, encourage job creation and find ways to raise money by making more of it for the country.
3. Retire the bulk of the current government and their corruption along with them. It is time for better leadership and less under the table dealings and pay offs.
4. Make it easier or foreign business and investment to bring money to Japan.
So stop apologizing and start doing something useful. Fukuda and the rest!
nisegaijin at 01:17 PM JST - 13th June

DoctorTofu,

If perfect market existed with strict laws about price fixing, cartels, and customer protection, insurance companies with better services would replace the crap ones.

Just like car insurances in Japan. Market for those is awesome, it works, it's cheap and it's fair and straightforward.
tkoind2 at 02:54 PM JST - 13th June

Private insurance does not work over time. It is cost and not humanitarian driven and will always exclude people for one reason or another. Cost is prohibitive for many and the negative impact to society of having a large uninsured population is very evident in the US if you are looking for an example of why not to have private insurance.

Healthcare should be a basic human right and should be supported by the citizenry. It should be rationally operated as we've seen in the UK and Canada.

Now above and beyond that you can certainly offer "Premium Service" healthcare for people who want it. But nationalized healthcare should provide all the necessary levels of care to assure wellcare and care for anyone with any ailment.

We trust too much to companies. And we do not make our governments accountable enough. For this we can blame ourselves. But things can and should change.
tkoind2 at 02:57 PM JST - 13th June

One other point nisegaijin, if rational and necessary humanitarian systems do not function well in a market economy, maybe there is something wrong with the market economy we have developed. Perhaps we need to change the balance between our socio political thinking and our purely economic thinking. Far too much is left to whim of business which is rapidly becoming the new feudal class. There are some things that should be made separate and protected as such. Like healthcare, social welfare, education etc...
nisegaijin at 05:30 PM JST - 13th June

Sorry guys, I can't agree with you. There are donations for those who prefer humanitarian solutions.
I strongly believe that economics is the only driver of today's society. Collapse of the Soviet Union and abolition of failed socialism in former Eastern Block countries showed that.

For reasons mentioned in my previous posts governments cannot nationalize healthcare or any other freebies. Unfortunately if healthcare, education, and esp social welfare become rights, they violate our very right to freedom of choice, while resulting taxes violate our right to ownership. That is why Ron Paul is claiming that 16th amendment is unconstitutional.

What's gonna happen in the long run is that value added of doing some work will become so insignificant that people will choose not to work and live on freebies from the government. Country will go bankrupt, as did the USSR. History repeats itself: common folks want communism so they can get stuff for free, while capitalists are trying to protect what is rightfully theirs.
nisegaijin at 05:33 PM JST - 13th June

tkoind2 ,

You have the key words right there: there is something wrong with market economy we have developed. I can tell you exactly what it is: Government intervention. They bloat entire industries with taxes and regulations expecting people not to protect their investments. The more government intervenes, the higher prices are going to get, less competition will be present, resulting in unhealthy market economy.
Triple888 at 07:32 PM JST - 13th June

Elderly health care is often overlooked - by a fellow old man.
lipscombe at 09:40 PM JST - 13th June

‘‘discriminatory treatment’’ has long been government policy, unless you are an MP
Jandals at 04:29 PM JST - 19th June

maybe he should spend less on construction...