Description
Book SynopsisJapan is the fastest aging country, with the largest super-aged society in the world and growing larger by the day, yet its universal health care costs are relatively low. In Health Insurance Politics in Japan, Takakazu Yamagishi draws back the curtain for an international audience and investigates how Japan has been able to control health care costs through health insurance politics.
Covering the period from the Meiji Restoration to the Abe Administration, Yamagishi uses a historical institutionalist approach to examine the driving force behind the development of health insurance policies in Japan. Yamagishi pays special attention to the roles of government and medical professionals, the main actors of the policymaking and medical worlds, in this development. Health Insurance Politics in Japan pushes Japan into the spotlight of the international conversation about health care reform.
Trade ReviewIn this meticulously researched synthesis, Yamagishi explains when and why Japanese medical practices and health insurance policies have changed since the mid-19th century.
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Table of ContentsIntroduction: To Understand the Health Insurance Policy Development in Japan
1. Westernizing Medicine
2. Reacting to Deteriorating Health
3. Improving People's Health for War
4. Reforming Health Care with the United States
5. Achieving Universal Health Insurance
6. Consolidating Universal Health Insurance
7. Making Universal Health Insurance Survive
8. Japanese Health Care in the Globalization Era
Conclusion: For the Future of Health Insurance Politics
