World hospitals and health services : the official journal of the International Hospital Federation
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World Hosp Health Serv · Jan 2004
Comparative StudyMarket principles in health care and social security policy in Japan.
Although health care in Japan is under the management of an obligatory insurance system, it is within the framework of a capitalist economy, and has helped achieve longevity during the post-war period. However, average lifetime has been improving in western European and Asian countries that have developed later. It has also been said that higher longevity is not necessarily due only to health care but also to the enhancement of environmental health achieved by economic improvements. ⋯ It was the market economy upon which health care depended that collapsed. Therefore, one must not consider that health care is subordinate to the economy. Without corrections in the failure of the market economy and in the 'trickle down' economic ideology, health care and social welfare cannot be established on a worldwide basis--the medical community should now take a leading position to emphasize this point.