Posted on 05/28/2008 8:03:47 PM PDT by JavaJumpy
TOKYO: Johns Hopkins Hospital, taking advantage of Japan's dissatisfaction with public health care, has launched a clinic in Tokyo that will charge as much as ¥2 million, or $17,000, for a three-day medical checkup.
The Tokyo Midtown Medical Center, which opened March 30 in the city's tallest office tower, is a venture involving the Baltimore-based Hopkins along with Mitsui Fudosan and Resorttrust. The clinic is the latest of seven overseas projects since 2006 for Hopkins, which has topped U.S. News & World Report's ranking of American hospitals the past 16 years.
Medical care for an aging population is absorbing more than 40 percent of the Japanese government's health budget, leaving less money for hospital emergency rooms and clinics. Almost half of Tokyo residents say they are frustrated by long waiting times at hospitals, a city government survey shows.
"Health care is a growing business, and we see a greater need among retirees" wanting to maintain their health, Katsuyasu Ito, president of Nagoya-based Resorttrust, an owner of time-share resorts and golf courses, said March 27.
Japanese patients must wait as long as one month for surgery because of a shortage of medical staff, the Mainichi newspaper reported on April 3. Forty-one of 113 hospitals surveyed by the newspaper said surgical patients are waiting longer than they did five years ago.
The medical services unit of Resorttrust generated ¥4.47 billion in sales last year and has grown an average 25 percent the past two years, three times the pace of the division that manages 41 resort hotels.
Resorttrust and Mitsui Fudosan, Japan's largest property developer, spent ¥2 billion creating the medical center in Midtown Tower. The 54-story building is the centerpiece of the $3.1 billion Tokyo Midtown development, whose other tenants include the local unit of Cisco Systems and Yahoo Japan.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
I love my Japanese wife but when you get down to brass tacks, she’s a flaming liberal. She’s always chiding me about how superior Japanese health care is to America’s because it’s “free”. “Free” my a$$.
Yep, our medical system sucks so bad that every country in the world comes to us (or asks us to come to them) for real medical help. This is a system that Hilary wants to fix. Go figure. ;-)
When I lived there, the medical care was very good but far from “free”. She never did any tax returns there, did she?
my 65 year old father paid part of the tab and so did my 57 year old mother, along with my 75 year old grand mother and many others who have worked hard all their lives only to be shafted by .GOV.CA
Canada’s health care machine IS run on the blood of the workers...
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