An Unintended Consequence of Universal Healthcare

Japan has a nationalized healthcare system which covers all services deemed necessary. And thanks to price restrictions, Japan's healthcare system is also one of the least costliest in the industrialized world.

But this policy has unintended consequences, says J. Mark Ramseyer of Harvard Law. The "private" healthcare sector, the one where services are provided for things not covered by the national system, like cosmetic surgery, has a knack for attracting certain kinds of doctors. From Ramseyer:

I then demonstrate that Japanese cosmetic surgeons are more talented and better trained than other physicians. They are more likely to have attended one of the more prestigious public medical schools. They are more likely to have been appointed to the faculty of a medical school. And they are more likely to invest the time necessary to become board certified.

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Ironically, most of the sectors excluded from the Japanese insurance scheme are those deemed medically least "necessary," and cosmetic surgery is one. Ironically, the price distortions drive the brightest Japanese doctors into cosmetic surgery -- there, to invest heavily in cosmetic expertise, and to certify that expertise to a level never seen in the medically "necessary" sectors.