Balancing Medical Equipment Costs with Public Finances

In this study, the author analyzes the cost of medical equipment from a public finance perspective, using data from “Statistics of Production by Pharmaceutical Industry” and other sources. The analysis revealed the following two points. First, the size of the medical equipment market (as a percentage of GDP) has grown generally consistently from 0.37% in 2001 to 0.52% in 2018, an increase of 0.15 percentage points in about 17 years. This suggests that the cost of medical equipment in National Medical Care Expenditure may have grown slightly faster than the nominal GDP growth rate, although statistical issues must be kept in mind. Second, although CT and MRI are the most discussed high-cost medical devices, there are other medical devices that have a significant impact on public finances. There are 72 medical devices with a market size of 5 billion yen or more and an average growth rate of 1% or more. Medical devices with a market size of 100 billion yen or more are “sterile tubes and catheters for blood vessels,” “other contact lenses,” and “artificial joints, bones, and related devices,” while the medical devices with a market size of 50 billion yen or more but less than 100 billion yen are “operating equipment and supplies, not elsewhere classified,” “dental gold-silver-palladium alloy,” “sense organ accessories” and “stents.”