On the Causality among Social Insurance Burden Rate, Health Care Expenditures and Public Pension

Abstract

insurance system have been financed through social insurance premiums paid by the working generations. In this environment, many researchers are concerned about how to pay for health care expenditures and limit the public pension burden. This study focuses on health care expenditures and public pension benefits because these costs occupy large shares of social security in Japan. In 1973, a revision of the Welfare Law for the Aged eliminated health care fees for the elderly. Our question is what happened next. Did the social insurance burden rate increase? Did health care expenditures rise because of public pension wealth increase? Since the inception of the universal health insurance system, the causal relationship between public pension benefits and health care expenditures in On the Causality among Social Insurance Burden Rate, Health Care Expenditures and Public Pension