Abstract
This paper utilizes cross-era comparison to analyze the development process of health care policies in three East Asian countries, Japan, South Korea and China. Based on this comparison, this paper argues that there is a distinctive 'East Asian Path' in the development of health care policy. The key elements of the 'East Asian Path' are incorporation of employee insurance and regional insurance, the importance of regional insurance, and heavy dependence on government subsidies. These characteristics imply that the main concern of East Asian social policy is balancing economic development and social stability during eras of rapid transformation, not just improving production. Unlike arguments of the East Asian Welfare Model, this paper does not insist that these three countries belong to one model. The 'path' means that they share similar features in particular stages of development. These similarities are not the result of common culture or geographical proximity. Instead, they are the inevitable results of late-coming, catch-up industrialization.
