American Healthcare System Compared to Japan’s

Strengths and Weaknesses of the American Healthcare System Compared to Japan’s
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Strengths and Weaknesses of the American Healthcare System Compared to Japan’s
Introduction
The American healthcare system is the most expensive in the world, yet it is in big trouble. Despite its global stature, the American health care system does not cover about 47 million of its citizens, while hundreds of thousands go bankrupt annually because of medical-related expenses (Reid, 2017). In his presidential campaign speech, President Obama said that the problem is not that Americans are avoiding healthcare. Instead, the problem lies in the fact that most Americans cannot afford healthcare. Within the same period, Republican senator, John McCain, said that the American health system is approaching a perfect storm of problems and that the system is about to implode if not addressed. Despite being the most expensive system in the world, WHO ranks the American system 37th globally in terms of quality and fairness. It, therefore, implies that the American health system is not as functional as it is supposed to be. The current paper seeks to critique the American health care system by comparing it to Japan's and proposing a few aspects of the Japanese system that could be adopted to streamline the American system.
Comparisons Between the American and Japanese Health Systems
In 2019, the U.S.'s health care spending was 17.7% of the GDP reaching $3.8 trillion (CMS, 2019). This figure translates to $11,582 per person and remains the highest in the world. Therefore, it would be expected that the country's care system is the most efficient, fair, and has high quality. Compared to Japan, however, this is not the case. In the same year, Japan's health expenditure was 11% of the GDP, translating to $4,174 per person. From this point of view, Japanese healthcare is less than half as expensive as the American system. However, there are several aspects in which the Japanese system surpasses the American system.
For instance, while America's life expectancy stands at 78.9 years, Japan's life expectancy is 84.43 years. The OECD defines "life expectancy" as the average number of years an infant is expected to live when the current mortality rates are retained. According to Hao et al. (2020), life expectancy is an essential measure of health care quality because it shows how well a health system takes care of the population. Gains in life expectancy at birth can be attributed to rising living standards, quality education, and improved lifestyle. More importantly, however, life expectancy relies on accessibility to quality health services. Another critical health outcome that acts as an indicator for the quality of health is the infant mortality rate in 2020. Japan's infant mortality rate was 1.684 deaths per 1000 live births in 2020, a 2.32% decline from 2019 (O'Neill, 2021). In the United States, the rate was 5.68 deaths per 1000 live births, a 1.17% decline from 2019 (O'Neill, 2021). Preserving infants' lives is a crucial indicator of the healthcare system's quality and effectiveness because it provid...