Liberal Japan

From an article about doctors in the Japan Times:

These days the burdens on doctors are increasing due to various factors, including the need to obtain informed consent from patients and make adequate preparations to prevent malpractice. Women doctors take childbirth and child-rearing leaves. A vicious cycle is in play: Overwork forces some doctors to quit; their departure leads to more overwork, which forces other doctors to quit. The government must act now.

If I am not mistaken doctors’ fees in Japan are not determined by the doctor in question, but by some quasi-governmental organization.

This means that if you are a doctor, you can improve your earnings only by either cutting costs (using cheaper equipment) or increasing revenue (by taking on more patients.)

This means a really great doctor can’t decide he’s worth twice as much as an average doctor and raise his prices accordingly. In other words, a brilliant doctor has to charge the same price as a fairly mediocre doctor.

The system clearly encourages at least two things:
1. Doctors to overwork.
2. Medical care workers to cut corners (or downright cheat) in anyway possible to reduce costs.

I know from personal experience that if I visit a doctor who isn’t very good, I don’t have to wait long. If I find a really good doctor the waiting time can be two hours or more. We’ve seen more than one example of healthcare companies in Japan cutting corners to save money … the recent problems at Comsn come to mind.