Japan Looks to America for Healthcare Cures
The Japanese are looking to us for tips on saving money on healthcare. TV Tokyo is in Green Bay, Wisconsin this week filming a documentary about Bellin Health's FastCare retail healthcare clinics. The documentarists told the Green Bay Press Gazette that they hope the film will encourage similar clinics to open in Japan, whose healthcare system has similar challenges to our own:
"We are doing a special feature about this retail clinic and about how hospitals got into this," said Mariko Daicho, a producer with TV Tokyo America Inc.
Daicho said Japan's national health-care system is plagued by overcrowded emergency rooms and a shortage of physicians. It doesn't have retail clinics or allow physician assistants.
"We said, 'There must be some merit for the hospitals as well as the patients. What would be the merit?'" she said.
Ken Berndt, director of Business Development for Bellin Health, said the Japanese health-care system is bankrupting the country.
"They have poor access and it's expensive," he said. "They are hoping to influence Japanese leaders to bring retail care to Japan."
Reader comments at the end of the article are interesting as well: ciao1 expressed worry that Japan's government-sponsored healthcare plan is still overtaxed and expensive. "Why again are we considering a government run system? I think this is the bigger story here."
Do you NPs believe retail healthcare will help the U.S. or Japanese healthcare systems save money?