Synopses & Reviews
The health care sector has become a major component of the contemporary economies of Japan and the United States. It absorbs significant portions of the GDP in both countries, and places increasing stress on private, government, and corporate budgets. With so much at stake, arrangements for planning, financing, and operating health care service systems have become increasingly important economic and political issues. Health Care Systems in Japan and the United States takes a macroeconomic policy approach to analyzing a fundamental question of the health care debate, namely, can the anticipated increasing rate of growth in future health care expenditures be financially absorbed by the society's increasing income and output? This monograph addresses not only if but also how health care financing could in the future be ethically, safely, and economically accomplished. It identifies the right questions which must be answered and the balance that must be sought among the dilemmas and paradoxes raised by the realities of financing health care services in the future.
Table of Contents
Preface. 1. Overview. 2. Demographic Changes in Japan and the United States. 3. Health Care Services Utilization Profiles Among the Elderly. 4. Paternalism in Health Care for the Elderly. 5. Trends in Health Care Expenditures and Financing. 6. Our Approach to the Problem. 7. The Simulation Model. 8. Simulation Results. 9. Alternate Set of Assumptions. 10. Concluding Remarks and Policy. Appendix A: Mathematical Specificiation of the Model. Appendix B: Proof that Income Elasticity is Greater than One. Bibliography. Index.