The health-care sector has become a major component of the contemporary economies of Japan and the United States. It absorbs significant portions of the GDP in both countries, and places increasing stress on private, government, and corporate budgets. With so much at stake, arrangements for planning, financing, and operating health-care service systems have become increasingly important economic and political issues. This study takes a macroeconomic policy approach to analyzing a fundamental question of the health care debate: can the anticipated increasing rate of growth in future health care expenditures be financially absorbed by the society's increasing income and output? This monograph addresses not only if, but also how, health care financing could in the future be ethically, safely, and economically accomplished. It identifies the right questions which must be answered and the balance that must be sought among the dilemmas and paradoxes raised by the realities of financing health care services in the future.

The health care sector has become a major component of the contemporary econo­ mies of Japan and the United States. It absorbs significant proportions of the GDP in both countries and places increasing stress on private, government and corporate budgets. As their income rises, the citizens ofJapan and the United States choose to allocate increasing portions of it on health care services because ofthe direct contri­ bution of health care services to prolonged life expectancy, reduced morbidity, or other indicators of improved health and well-being. The health care sector is a ma­ jor source ofemployment and affects the lives of all citizens. Adequate health care services are expected to have an important contribution to the quality of human life in any society. With so much at stake, arrangements for planning, financing, and operating health care service systems have increasingly come to be regarded as im­ portant economic and political issues. The political importance of health care is evidenced by the health care reform proposals of the Clinton administration in the United States and the deep involve­ ment of the government in the medical care security system in Japan. As policy­ makers in both countries look ahead to the coming decades, they realize that the imperatives of economic restructuring, globalization, and their rapidly aging socie­ ties will affect the way in which health care is organized, delivered, and financed.

The health-care sector has become a major component of the contemporary economies of Japan and the United States. It absorbs significant portions of the GDP in both countries, and places increasing stress on private, government, and corporate budgets. With so much at stake, arrangements for planning, financing, and operating health-care service systems have become increasingly important economic and political issues. This study takes a macroeconomic policy approach to analyzing a fundamental question of the health care debate: can the anticipated increasing rate of growth in future health care expenditures be financially absorbed by the society's increasing income and output? This monograph addresses not only if, but also how, health care financing could in the future be ethically, safely, and economically accomplished. It identifies the right questions which must be answered and the balance that must be sought among the dilemmas and paradoxes raised by the realities of financing health care services in the future.

The health care sector has become a major component of the contemporary econo­ mies of Japan and the United States. It absorbs significant proportions of the GDP in both countries and places increasing stress on private, government and corporate budgets. As their income rises, the citizens ofJapan and the United States choose to allocate increasing portions of it on health care services because ofthe direct contri­ bution of health care services to prolonged life expectancy, reduced morbidity, or other indicators of improved health and well-being. The health care sector is a ma­ jor source ofemployment and affects the lives of all citizens. Adequate health care services are expected to have an important contribution to the quality of human life in any society. With so much at stake, arrangements for planning, financing, and operating health care service systems have increasingly come to be regarded as im­ portant economic and political issues. The political importance of health care is evidenced by the health care reform proposals of the Clinton administration in the United States and the deep involve­ ment of the government in the medical care security system in Japan. As policy­ makers in both countries look ahead to the coming decades, they realize that the imperatives of economic restructuring, globalization, and their rapidly aging socie­ ties will affect the way in which health care is organized, delivered, and financed.