一般会計医療費予算の動向

The transition of the economy to an era of low growth from the mid-1970s was accompanied by changes in the socioeconomic circumstances surrounding the health care system. These scioeconomic changes led to a significant revision of the health care system formulated during the era of high economic growth.
First, in terms of fiscal policy, fiscal rehabilitation was a key issue in drawing up the national budget. Second, in the field of social security policy, coping with the aging soociety was a priority and a new health and medical service system for the elderly was implemented.
These developments had a strong influence on medical care expenditures in the central goverment general accounts. On the one hand, in order to control outlays, a variety of measures were adopted, including reduction in the rates of subsidies and cost sharing by patients. On the other hand, due to the steady increase in the number of aged people as well as the introduction of the new system mentioned above, medical care expenditures for the elderly accounted for higher proportion of total health care expenditures in the national budgets.