抄録
The National Health Insurance System (NHI) has been forced to implement strict fiscal management. In some prefectures, examination has focused on improving financial sustainability of the NHI by expanding the units of municipalities into the prefecture. This paper empirically analyzes the economies of scale of the office administration of the NHI using local government-level data in exploring transfers of the General Account. The key results found were: 1) The office administration of the NHI has the economy of scale for the number insured; 2) The costs of personnel-related items and the rates of hospitalization-consultation factor into the increased office administration expenses, and these expenses can be effectively decreased by increasing the number of insured persons by expanding the insurer unit.
