In that crowded, dingy, but ever-so-polite clinic, I saw both sides of Japanese medicine. There was instant access to fine doctors, a considerable range of choice for the patients, and a private insurance system that seemed to cover just about everything. There was also a sense of a medical infrastructure that was overstretched and pinching pennies. In a sense, that makes Japanese medicine the mirror image of America. Our country spends too much on health care and gets too little in return; Japan gets lots of health care but probably spends too little to make its excellent system sustainable.
