WHEN EAST MEETS WEST: A Look at Japan\’s Health Care System (Part two)

The government has largely been unable to reduce the length of hospital stays, which are four times as long in Japans in the United States. Hospital doctors are often overworked and cannot hone specialized life-saving skills, according to recent reports by McKinsey. Statistics show that the Japanese are much less likely to have heart attacks than people in the United States,but that when they do, their chance of dying is twice as high. There are shortages of obetricians, anesthesiologists and emergency room specialists because of relatively low pay,long hours and high stress at many of the nations hospitals.