Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2023 | Editorial
Generic drug crisis in Japan and changes leading to the collapse of universal health insurance established in 1961: the case of Kobayashi Kako Co. Ltd.
Authors:
Makoto Kosaka, Akihiko Ozaki, Yudai Kaneda, Hiroaki Saito, Erika Yamashita, Anju Murayama, Hanano Mamada, Tetsuya Tanimoto, Mihajlo Jakovljevic
Published in:
Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation
|
Issue 1/2023
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Excerpt
Japan established a national health insurance scheme in 1961, and thanks to this, all the Japanese population have equal access to decent medical care by paying only 10–30% of the medical cost from their own pocket basically, depending on the person's age [
1]. An overlooked consequence was ever-increasing healthcare costs. With the advancement of medical technology and a fast-aging society, Japan’s healthcare cost has kept rising, exceeding 44 trillion JPY in 2019, which calls for an overhaul of its health insurance scheme [
2]. However, the Japanese government failed to offer a fundamental solution and instead took a temporary measure in 2015 to encourage the use of generic drugs. …