Cost of health care in Japan

A few days ago I came across a graph by the National Geographic that showed the cost of health care per person in different countries. What’s the cost of health care in Japan? Here is the graph (find the original article on this link):

The source of data is OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The author of the graph mentions that not all OECD countries are included for better readability as some data would otherwise overlap. If you’re interested in the rest of the countries, see this spreadsheet.

The graphs shows that Japan — which belongs to countries with highest quality medical care — comes below average with $2,581 spent per person for medical care (year 2007) and ranks the highest in average life expectancy among listed countries.  The U.S. stands out with the highest spending at $7,290 per person and is the only listed country — besides Mexico — that does not offer universal health coverage.

People in Japan also visit a doctor on average 12 times or more pear year. Why so often? Naoki Ikegami, chairman of the Keio University Department of Health Policy and Management in an interview for PBS about healthcare in Japan says that these visits tend to be very short (as little as 5 minutes for repeat consultations) and are common for the elderly with chronic illnesses who want to assure themselves about the state of their health. The low costs also make it possible for people to visit doctors more often.

Ikegami adds that the “main goal of a public health insurance is to prevent people from going broke.”