2001 Volume 1 Pages 141-151
There are two major problems with health screening organizations which are quasi-public corporations financially supported by prefectural governments. Not only has the scope of their operation as public bodies not been adequately specified, but also their financial support may have caused inefficiencies in their management and dependency on public funds.
To solve the first problem, this paper establishes the scope of their operation from the public-choice economics point of view. It shows that the quasi-public organizations should play a leading role in promoting new health screening technologies, secure service for remote areas, and so forth. It also points out the existence of market failure in the price-driven health screening market, which makes health-screening organizations avoid the costs of quality control. It suggests also the possibility that quasi-public organizations that have achieved high accuracy can function through competition under a certain condition as the engine for general quality control.
As a solution to the second problem, it examines accounting systems of quasi-public organizations and methods of local government financial support, then proposes several policies for more efficient operation, including clarification of the purpose of these organizations, restructuring their operations, and setting an objective standard for financial support.
