Research on growth rate adjustment mechanisms for public health insurance expenditures
Japan's fiscal situation has been strained for the past few decades due to a chronic fiscal deficit amid a declining population and an aging population. One of the main causes of this is the expansion of social security expenditures, including public health insurance and nursing care insurance. However, footnote 27 of the "Children's Future Strategy," approved by the Cabinet on December 22, 2023, notes that insurance premium rates are rising because the growth in health care and nursing care benefits exceeds the growth in employee compensation. It states, "In order to increase the take-home income of young people and families with children, we will narrow this gap through expenditure reforms and wage increases, and minimize the increase in insurance premium rates." In this project, we reconsider the feasibility of policies I have proposed, such as a "growth rate adjustment mechanisms for public health insurance expenditures" (a medical version of the macroeconomic index) and a " growth rate adjustment mechanism for public pharmaceutical expenditure " (a pharmaceutical version of the macroeconomic index), based on the relationship between this cabinet decision and public health insurance expenditures (as a percentage of GDP) and the implications of the Cabinet Office's long-term fiscal projections (April 2024).
Principal Investigator
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小黒一正
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- Nonresident Senior Fellow
- Kazumasa Oguro
- Kazumasa Oguro
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