Abstract
I have analyzed the three cases of policy process of the Regional Health Service Plan. The first case was the amendment to the Health Service Act in 1962, which introduced control over the number of the public hospital beds. The second case was the Health Service Fundamental Act, which was rejected in 1972 but resulted later as the experimental implementation of the Regional Health Service Plan. The third case was the amendment to the Health Service Act in 1985, which introduced the Regional Health Service Plan and the control over the number of hospital beds. In the second case the policy process of the health service policy had metamorphosed by the rise of the medical officers and the formation of the medical professionals' policy community.
Health Policy can be divided into health service policy and health insurance policy. As for health service policy, the policy community composed of the medical officers and Japan Medical Association was formed in the 1970s, and the Chief Medical Officer had implemented the Model Plan of Regional Health Service after the bill was rejected. In the background there was the idea held by the opposition parties to socialize the health service system. The significance of the amendment to the Health Service Act in 1985 was merely to confirm the prearranged policy prepared by the policy community.
