America Answers The Call of Japan's Health Crisis
Friday, June 02, 2006SUSIE GHARIB: Japan has offered universal healthcare for 45 years. But as the country rapidly ages and medical costs spiral, many fear the system will go bust. Consumers, meanwhile, are clamoring for better quality and more modern treatment. Now American providers of medical goods and services are seeking to fill that need. Lucy Craft reports from Tokyo.
LUCY CRAFT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: We couldn`t film inside a typical Japanese hospital, so we`re showing you the outside of one. Japan`s enviable life span has been credited in part to the fact that basic medical care is guaranteed to every citizen, young or old, rich or poor, working or retired. But there`s a tradeoff. Even prestigious university hospitals like this one tend to be shabby, service substandard and choice of treatments almost non-existent, a first world country, in other words, with second-rate medical care.
JAMES KONDO, VICE CHAIR, HEALTHCARE POLICY INSTITUTE, JAPAN: It`s traditionally seen as a charity conducted by noble professionals who are not in the area for money. Most of the firms that could actually go into health care did not, mainly because they were afraid that they might be criticized for trying to make money off sick people. And I think that mind-set is still there, although changing.
CRAFT: Japan has long frustrated American makers of devices like pacemakers. Medical technology has adopted so slowly, patients seeking advanced treatment usually go to the U.S. at their own expense.
HUIMIN WANG, VICE PRESIDENT, JAPAN & INTERCONTINENTAL, EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES: Japan is pretty much the last country we can bring the latest technology in the world. So often times when we compare to the developed markets like Europe or U.S., we`re selling products that are two, three, sometimes even more generations behind. And if you`re in a field where things are happening very rapidly and you`re competing on the basis of innovation, it`s a difficult market to compete.
CRAFT: But Japan is rethinking its medical system because of an impending fiscal crisis. The Japanese are among the healthiest people on earth, but here`s the rub. Their health care system is on the skids, struggling to cope with a surfeit of senior citizens. The bill for treating all these elderly now stands at about $300 billion and it`s expected to double over the next 20 years.
Japanese consumers, too, are starting to demand more than one size fits all medical care, so a handful of providers are pioneering levels of service western patients have long taken for granted. This Tokyo clinic with its designer decor, concierge service and sympathetic physicians caters to corporate health care plans and patients willing to pay out of pocket.
TANSLATON OF: MITSUKO SHIMOMURA, DIRECTOR, GENKI PLAZA MEDICAL CLINIC: Japanese hospitals are cold, dirty, uninviting and physicians are arrogant. I wanted to provide a more healing atmosphere, coffee and cookies, relaxing music and physicians who treat patients as customers.
CRAFT: Some observers say the health system financing crisis offers an unprecedented opportunity for American and other foreign firm which can provide value in everything from drugs to medical devices to niche insurance plans.
KONDO: It`s a sector that hasn`t had many new participants come in. It`s lacking ideas and it`s clearly unmet needs of patients.
CRAFT: By streamlining its hospital system, emphasizing preventative health and introducing market incentives, experts argue Japan can cover its ballooning health bill without breaking its treasury, but first, it will have overcome a still entrenched socialist legacy. Lucy Craft, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Tokyo.
