The Japan Dental Federation’s political donation scandal is a clear reminder, observers say, of lobbying by a group known for its persistent efforts to push up the prices of medical services.
Tokyo prosecutors on Wednesday arrested Mikimasa Takagi, a former JDF chairman, and two former JDF executives in connection with allegations that JDF donated ¥100 million and ¥95 million respectively to Liberal Democratic Party and Democratic Party of Japan members of the Upper House, in excess of the annual legal limit of ¥50 million. They are alleged to have made the payments through complex channels to obfuscate their origins.
The allegations recall a scandal in 2004 in which JDF donated ¥100 million to the political faction of the late Ryutaro Hashimoto, a Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight and a former prime minister, and disguised it.
In the same year, JDF members were arrested for bribing members of the Central Social Insurance Medical Council, a health ministry advisory panel, in an effort to influence the government-mandated price list for medical services in the dentists’ favor.
JDF, which represents the political interests of the national Japan Dental Association, has always sought to establish connections in the political world with the goal of raising the prices of medical services.
The driving force behind this is what is described as stagnation in the dental industry. Over 2,000 dental clinics were forced to close, either permanently or temporarily, in the year to September 2011, according to a health ministry survey.
The ministry reported the average annual net income of dental practitioners as ¥11 million in fiscal 2012, less than half that of doctors, at ¥27 million.
The official list of government prescribed medical prices dictates fees for medical treatments provided under the national health insurance program, and thus significantly affects the incomes of medical practitioners and their institutions.
Typically, ruling parties, pressured by medical interest groups, assert price hikes and challenge Finance Ministry officials when they resist. The CSIMC drafts a list of recommended revisions to medical prices once every two years, but the hikes need Finance Ministry approval.
When the Democratic Party of Japan took the helm of government in 2009, the JDF was quick to turn away from the outgoing LDP, with which it previously had strong connections, and began to explicitly approach the DPJ.
Thus, in the Upper House election in July 2010, the then-executive team of the JDF, headed by Naofumi Tsutsui — another former executive who was recently arrested — decided to ditch a plan to field a candidate on an LDP ticket.
Instead, the group consulted then-DPJ executive Ichiro Ozawa and successfully sent dentist Masami Nishimura to the upper chamber on a DPJ ticket. Nishimura’s political support group is alleged to have received ¥100 million in donations in the latest scandal.
When the prescribed medical service prices were revised the following year, upward price revisions in the dental sector reached an overall 2.09 percent, exceeding rises in other medical areas for the first time in 32 years.
“We’ve achieved something that couldn’t have been done in politics in the past, in a short period of time,” Tsutsumi was quoted as saying at the time. This reaction was in marked contrast to officials of the Japan Medical Association, who did not hide their dissatisfaction.
After the DPJ’s fall from power in the 2012 general election, the JDF pivoted back to the LDP. It supported Midori Ishii of the party in the July 2013 Upper House election, whose political support group is now suspected to have received the ¥95 million donation. The dentist won a seat with some 290,000 votes, which reflects the strength of the JDF and the more than 50,000 dentists nationwide it represents. Its size makes it an attractive vote collector for political parties.
Source:http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/10/02/national/politics-diplomacy/japans-dental-lobby-desperate-hike-prices-set-government/#.Vg7mthNVhBc
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