Sănătate în Japonia

Japan has the second largest economy in the world, after USA, in terms of nominal GDP.

These economical successes don’t mean anything if they aren’t visible in people’s lives. One way to analyze the quality of one nation’s living is trough that nation’s health. Health is a complex concept and it’s a blending result between life style and the whole history of that nation.

In Japan a remarcable thing in the health care system is the universal health care insurance system, through which every single person has an health insurance. There are two main categories of health insurance: Kenkō-Hoken meaning social health insurance and Kokumin-Kenkō-Hoken meaning national health insurance. National health insurance is generally reserved for self-employed people and students, whereas social insurance is normally for corporate employees. Each program has other branches, which for a foreign people can be too hard to understand. Another interesting thing about their health care insurance system is the fee paid by an inhabitant. Comparing to USA this fee is very small. For example, for an average monthly disposable income of ¥561,000 meaning US$5,300 the cap is ¥63,600 meaning US$600 per month; additionally, there is a low-income cap.

The Japanese healthcare system is highly regulated by the government; this has positive sides but also bad sides. Any person can choose any hospital/clinic to be treated in because the fees for the same service are the same but also in this way there is a lack of differentiation and standardization of the hospitals/clinics but also of the doctors.

Starting with 1997 Japan has the biggest rate number of hospital beds per 1000 inhabitants. Even so, in some regions there aren’t enough hospital beds and in 2007 more than 14,000 emergency patients were rejected at least three times by Japanese hospitals before getting treatment according to a government survey.

While the fee per person is small, the total cost for health care in Japan is a lot smaller than in other countries with the same high economy. In 2004 Japan spent for health only 7,8% from its total GDP while USA has the biggest health cost in the world meaning 15,4% from its total GDP in the same year. This shows that Japan spends each year almost half from what USA spends for health. This isn’t because Japanese don’t care about health, but because they have a different way of living and other customs.

Starting with the fifth century the Chinese medicine was introduced in Japan with healing method based on massage, acupuncture, reflexoterapy and herbal drugs. Some of these methods are still applied in the present and 148 herbal drugs have been approved by the national Japanese health care system. The western medicine had been introduced in Japan starting only with 1603.

Other things that contribute to their healthy life are food and hygiene. Is well known that traditional Japanese food is based on rice, fish and vegetables, mostly boiled. They were used to eat small quantities because they had small areas suitable for crops and until fifteenth century the Buddhism didn’t allow them to consume meat. While Europeans believed that washing more then twice per life would make them sick, the Japanese took hot baths each day.

In present, one of the biggest public health issues in Japan is smoking: in 2003 46,9% of men and 14,5% of women were smokers, these being the number one preventable cause of death in the country. About HIV/AIDS cases, in 1985 there was the first confirmed case and in 2003 there were 12,000 people infected.

However, the most important indicator is life expectancy at birth which is also a measure of overall quality of life in a country. Japan has the third biggest life expectancy at birth in the world with an 82,07 years value. Even more, after calculating this indicator with other methods, Japan is on the first place in the world.

In conclusion, even though it has some problems to resolve, Japan has some of the healthiest inhabitants in the world.

Japonia a fost de-a lungul timpului un loc exotic, necunoscut, “ţara de unde răsare soarele”. În prezent, din punct de vedere economic, Japonia este a doua ţară din lume ca PIB net şi a treia după paritatea valutară.

Totuşi indicatorii şi reuşitele în plan economic nu au nici o valoare dacă starea de bine nu se reflectă şi în traiul cetăţenilor. Astfel calitatea vieţii locuitorilor unei ţări poate fi analizată din punctul de vedere al sănătăţii.

1. Sănătatea la nivel individual şi naţional

Sănătatea este un concept complex, ce cuprinde numeroase dimensiuni precum cea emoţională, intelectuală, fizică, socială şi spirituală. Sănătatea înseamnă mult mai mult decât absenţa bolii. Ea este un proces ce contribuie la bunăstare şi echilibru şi este rezultatul îmbinării stilului de viaţă (compus din stilul de lucru, stilul de recreere, stilul de distracţie, stilul de comunicare, stilul de relaţionare, stilul de cunoaştere, stilul de consum, stilul de alimentaţie şi stilul de ecologie) cu întreaga istorie a naţiunii.

Mai departe, nivelul stării de sănătate poate fi măsurat prin indicatori precum: speranţa de viaţă, incidenţa cazurilor de HIV/SIDA, incidenţa cazurilor de cancer, numărul accidentelor de circulaţie etc.

Un aspect foarte important al întregului concept de sănătate la nivel de naţiune îl reprezintă sistemul naţional de servicii de sănătate, adică modul şi gradul în care statul ca instituţie se implică în îmbunătăţirea nivelului de trai al cetăţenilor. Un sistem de servicii medicale bine pus la punct şi implicit posibilitatea de a apela la servicii medicale specializate, superioare, cât şi o bună educaţie a populaţiei cu privire la sănătate sunt premise cruciale pentru sănătatea generală a populaţiei.

Indicatori ai serviciilor de sănătate disponibile într-o ţară sunt: sănătatea ca procent, numărul paturilor din spitale, numărul medicilor etc.

Valorile acestor indicatori permit compararea mai multe ţări între ele şi formarea unei păreri despre situaţia unei anumite ţări, dar aceste valori trebuie să fie corelate, pentru o părere cât mai corectă, cu istoria ţării respective, adică cu modul de formare al modului de viaţă din prezent şi normal cu acest mod de viaţă.

2. Asigurările de sănătate în Japonia

Un element foarte important al sănătăţii la nivel naţional o constituie asigurările de sănătate. Existenţa acestora din urmă scuteşte eventualul bolnav şi familia sa de anumite probleme financiare şi organizatorice.

În Japonia sunt două sisteme de asigurări de sănătate:

1. asigurările de sănătate simple sau sociale numite Kenkō-Hoken - destinate angajaţilor din cadrul companiilor şi persoanelor dependente de aceştia.

2. asigurările de sănătate naţionale numite Kokumin-Kenkō-Hoken - destinate studenţilor, bătrânilor şi angajaţilor pe cont propriu.

Primul sistem cuprinde la rândul lui două modalităţi de asigurare: prin asociaţii independente sau prin intermediul statului. Astfel, angajatorii de şi peste o anumită dimensiune împreună cu angajaţii lor formează asociaţii de asigurare medicală.