7．Health Technology Assessment from the Viewpoint of Patients and Patient Groups

Abstract

Patients can receive advanced medical care at a relatively low burden with the support of the system of the public health insurance for the whole nation and high-cost medical expense benefit in Japan. Despite these systems, some patients feel that they have many economic burden of medical care and cancer patient groups have demanded the reduction of economic burden. On the other hand some claim that the application of insurance to new drugs should be revised as the prices of new drugs are highly rising. As for health technology assessment cost-effectiveness evaluation is now being introduced from the point of cutting costs and patients now do not participate in the process of appraisal.