Balancing Medical Services, Costs a Major Challenge for Takaichi

Tokyo, Oct. 22 (Jiji Press)–New Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi faces a difficult challenge in maintaining the quality of the country’s medical and nursing care services while lowering related expenses, amid an aging population. Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), the new coalition partner to Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has called for lowering social security premiums for working people. But this requires reforms that are expected to increase the burden on society, including the elderly, as a whole. Since medical and nursing care services are offered at fixed prices set by the state, many service providers are struggling to cope with rapid inflation and are operating at a loss. Takaichi told a press conference soon after her election as LDP president that she is considering support for medical and nursing care businesses with funds from a possible supplementary budget. Her comments signaled that official prices for medical and nursing care services will be raised earlier than planned. But this aid to service providers is expected to result in higher insurance premiums and out-of-pocket payments by users. Nippon Ishin has called for lowering insurance premiums for working people by 60,000 yen per person per year, by reducing national medical care expenditures by over 4 trillion yen from the current level of nearly 50 trillion yen. The LDP and Nippon Ishin agreed in their coalition deal signed Monday to aim to stem the rise of premiums for working people and eventually to lower them. But the deal did not include numerical targets, and it remains to be seen if Nippon Ishin’s demands will be met. Nippon Ishin has demanded that prescription medicines similar to over-the-counter drugs be excluded from insurance coverage. But the Japan Medical Association, a major supporter of the LDP, has opposed this. In her LDP leadership election campaign, Takaichi called for the establishment of a corporation-led after-school care program for elementary school students whose parents are not at home amid an increase in dual-income households. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]