http://troutfactory.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/japans-health-care-system-and-the-american-debate-about-national-care/

Like you I think that the Japanese medical system is grounded in its own particular social/cultural/economic/political matrix and it would be a mistake simply to imagine a wholesale transposition of the Japanese system onto the United States. That much said, I think there are so many positives than can be taken from the Japanese system that it would be a horrible mistake to simply dismiss what’s been able to be accomplished here despite the fact that the system may in fact be “no Utopia.”

I’ve written a much, much longer post about this at my own blog, and at the risk of seeming like a lowdown self-promoter, I’ll provide a link here:

I’ve been living in Japan for over four years now, usually go to see the doctor for something or other between two and five times a year, and have never had a particularly bad experience. I have had to wait for hours in the waiting room before, but that was when I showed up with no appointment on the day that I wanted to be seen. Each time I’ve actually had an appointment I haven’t had to wait longer than 15 minutes. My visits to the doctor are unconscionably cheap, the doctors are always nice enough (though it’s true they don’t spend a lot of time with pleasantries), and they’ve listened to and addressed my questions. Whenever I’ve had medicine prescribed it’s been cheap and done the trick. When friends from abroad have come to visit they’ve had similar experiences (including being amazed at the incredibly cheap doctor bills).

But don’t just trust my anecdotal evidence — check out the Americans Abroad Know About National Health Care site, a site that collects stories about the positive health care experiences of Americans living abroad. This site was started by a person living in Japan, so a majority of the stories that are told here are stories about the Japanese health care system. Dozens and dozens of anecdotes, and all of them positive.

http://healthcareforamerica.blogspot.com/

Finally — and once again I agree with you that there are problems with the health care system that need to be addressed — there’s no doubt that statistically the Japanese health care system outperforms the U.S. health care system when it comes to raw, un-anecdotal statistics:

http://streetlightblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/some-statistics-on-health-care.html

It’s true that there may be many discomforts, problems, etc. when it comes to specific areas of Japanese health care — and it’s also true that the U.S. may excel when it comes to drug and treatment innovation — but as far as general care is concerned (the type that most people get and need) there’s a reason that the World Health Organization (in 2000) ranked Japan 10th and the U.S. 37th in the world when it comes to health care.

Having said all of that, I appreciate your comments, and hope you will come back. I appreciate debate, and while you may disagree with my conclusions, I am always open to having them challenged. Unfortunately the anecdotal experiences of one person that I don’t know from Adam are not going to be sufficient to change my mind on the subject. I need a lot more evidence than that.

Have experienced the systems in England, Japan and the US, my last expression would be identical to the woman in the W.P. article, the US has a third world medical system in a supposedly first world country.

Some of the medications are not available in Japan but there are usually alternatives.
Some of the medications are not available in Japan but there are usually alternatives.

The average of age death should be evidence enough of how much more superior the system here is.