Characteristics of a medical care program for specific diseases in Japan in an era of changing cost-sharing.

The Medical Care Program for Specific Diseases (Specific Diseases Program) was initiated in 1972. The Program has two major components; research grant for specific diseases and medical cost subsidy for specific diseases. The research grant component now targets 118 diseases, and the medical cost subsidy component supports all or part of the co-payments of medical expenses for patients of 44 out of the 118 research target diseases. The present study reviewed public assistance programs for the vulnerable population in Japan, particularly those with designated Specific Diseases, in the context of the wider social security system. Existing governmental information were abstracted and analyzed. The results showed that the recent reform of the Specific Disease Program, which requires the patients in this Program to share a small portion of the medical costs, influenced the number of patients and health services utilization. Other health insurance reforms also have significant effects on the number of patients registered in the Specific Diseases Program, reflecting the relative merit/demerit of the Program in comparison with the general health insurance scheme. Therefore, in an environment of social security reform, formulation of health care policies for specific programs should take into account the relative merits and demerits of the Program in question, in comparison with the general health insurance scheme, to avoid misestimating the number of patients covered by the Program and their utilization of health care services.