With the Health Services for the Elderly Act 1982, key policies were
implemented to cope with the future increases in elderly benefi ciaries.
The changes required people aged 70 years or older to pay a fi xed co-payment
for health care (400 yen per month for ambulatory care and 300 yen a day
for hospital care) and provided for fi nancial redistribution between insurers
to account for higher costs of health care for the elderly depending on the
proportion of the elderly among the insured for each fund