By Natsumi Shirasaka
These days a lot of cities, towns and villages adopt free health care. Indeed, this enables people to go to hospital easily and live longer. However, this causes financial deterioration at the same time. So, I disagree that all people are entitled to free health care. There are three reasons to support my idea.
First, free health care causes higher medical costs. According to O (2015), through the launch of free healthcare for elderly, aging population has been advanced suddenly because of the increase of national standard of living, the development of medical technique, the decrease of birthrates, and so on. Including Tokyo, a lot of local governments started free health car, but when the national government also started it, a lot of elderly people started to use medical services, so national medical expenses have been increased. Medical cost for elderly have become three times higher than ever, so elderly outpatients means the increase of overall medical costs. Also, according to the Japan Medical Association (2015), through the development of the medical technology, of course it helps people’s health but on the other hand, it also costs a lot of money. For example, X-rays, which exist from before, is only 1,000 yen once, but MRI, which is used these days, costs 14,000 yen once, so the total cost is increasing. So, free health care increases the national medical expenses.
Second, free health care can cause too many consultations. According to Asahi Shinbun (2018), “Convini consultation” happens. It means that people have unnecessary medical tests and treatments at night and on holidays even when their pain is very small. Some people go to the hospital when they can treat their conditions or buy medicine at the drug store. This type of easy-going medical treatments is also paid as national tax or insurance by the nation. If the government considers people’s health, they should use money for prevention of diseases. For example, the newborn baby’s thorough examination, is preventive because it discovers diseases early. Thus, the government can cut the cost of medical treatment fundamentally.
Third, according to Asahi Shinbun (2018), free health care causes injustice. Of course, in order to keep free medical treatment, the nation must have pay and support the system. These needs increasing tax. However, the Ministry of Health, labor and Welfare’s survey on this Asahi Shinbun indicates that the working-age generations argue that it is injustice to pay tax. Many people who are more than 70 years old think that the working-age generations should pay, but many people who are 30-39 years old think that elderly people should pay more. So, free health care causes unfairness.
In conclusion, I’m not in favor of all people having free health care. It causes higher medical costs, wasting consultation, and injustice. The Japanese government has to consider what health care should be.
References
Japan Medical Association. (2015). DOCTORASE. https://jpn01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.med.or.jp%2F&data=05%7C01%7C%7C70a24f76fa9249b9400708dae7028e25%7Cf11434e8abcf41f48154a9b2608dcd42%7C0%7C0%7C638076296315836330%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=f8ykvz1oqS0NlaEkiJiBkATLaeM4HB%2FmPGQCVEMLgn4%3D&reserved=0
doctor-ase/vol2/2page_09.html
O, S. (2005). 老人医療無料化制度の形成 と国民医療費. 佛教大学大学院紀要 第33号. https://jpn01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchives.bukkyo-u.ac.jp%2Frp-contents%2FDO%2F0033%2FDO00330L223.pdf&data=05%7C01%7C%7C70a24f76fa9249b9400708dae7028e25%7Cf11434e8abcf41f48154a9b2608dcd42%7C0%7C0%7C638076296315836330%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=MPMBhofjZFwENyWmAD6ABB3WnPf5T9NCJLZ%2BVCD7FYs%3D&reserved=0
Yoshikawa, K., Nichiura,T. 子ども医療費の無料化拡大、是か非か?. (2018). 朝日新聞DIGITAL. https://jpn01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.asahi.com%2Farticles%2FASL2P3QVKL2PUBQU006.html&data=05%7C01%7C%7C70a24f76fa9249b9400708dae7028e25%7Cf11434e8abcf41f48154a9b2608dcd42%7C0%7C0%7C638076296315836330%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=h4eLsbtp0ctkUeAR7Mq1CTp7ORPt%2BnelNc6eVDTTjD0%3D&reserved=0
