An Analysis of the Policies for the Equalization of
Intergenerational Economic Burden, Using Health and Long-term Care
Insurances Model
On August 4, our project member Professor Yasushi Iwamoto made a
presentation entitled "An Analysis of the Policies for the Equalization of
Intergenerational Economic Burden, Using Health and Long-term Care
Insurances Model ". At the seminar held at the Economics Research Building
Prof. Iwamoto presented the work he has done in cooperation with Prof.
Tadashi Fukui from Kyoto Sangyo University.
Burgeoning social security costs present a major threat for the viability of
the Japanese society, which faces rapid population aging and population
decline. According to Iwamoto and Fukui, in assessing future social security
costs, previous studies have tended to emphasize public pensions, although
the largest increase in public cost will, in fact, come from health care and
the utilization of the government scheme for nursing care, known as
Long-term Care (LTC). Their analysis covers the period of 95 years and
focuses on intergenerational differences in lifetime burden. Iwamoto and
Fukui find that large intergenerational differences will exist between
future generations in Japan, and that significant increases in expenditure
on health and nursing cannot be avoided, but their simulations of different
future scenarios also show that it is possible to alleviate the situation by
reducing the peak of life time burden.