As was shown in Table 1, the number of Nursing Home beds is to be increased to 290,000 before the end of fiscal year 1999 by the New Ten-year Gold Plan
b) Health Care Facilities for the Elderly
Health Care Facilities for the Elderly are long-term care institutions designed as halfway houses between hospitals and the community. The running costs of the Health Care Facilities are born jointly by the Public Sickness Insurance Scheme (6/12), the State (4/12), the Prefectural Government (1/12), and the Local Government (1/12).
In order to promote the construction of Health Care Facilities, the National Government has a special grant program, a low interest loan program, and a special tax deduction program.
The client of a Health Care Facility is required to bear residential costs. The amount of charge differs among Health Care Facilities. The average amount is approximately 60,000 yen (approximately US$560) a month. Except for those who are receiving public assistance, the charge is equal for all clients regardless of the amount of their income or savings. As a Health Care Facility for the Elderly belongs to the category of medical care institutions, no charge is imposed on relatives, however he/she might be well-to-do. Therefore, for those who have income above certain level or who have a wealthy relative, a Health Care Facility is more economical than a Nursing Home.
At present (May 31, 1997), there are approximately 151,400 beds in Health Care Facilities throughout Japan.
As pointed out above, because of the shortage of long-term care beds, quite a number of seriously impaired older persons are hospitalized for a long time without a real need for such hospitalization. The accurate number of such older persons is unknown. The only information available is the number of beds in so-called Geriatric Hospitals ("Rojin Byoin"). The number of beds in Geriatric Hospitals was approximately 179,900 in May, 1996.
As discussed earlier in this paper, the number of beds in Health Care Facilities is to be increased to 280,000 before the end of fiscal year 1999 by the New Ten-year Gold Plan.
