Recently, the Health Labor and Welfare Ministry released the results of 15 years of research into the amount of money a person spends on health care during an entire lifetime. The research began in 1994, based on records of 52,000 male and female residents of Miyagi Prefecture aged between 40 and 79.
According to the research, a 40 year-old-man today with normal blood pressure could expect to live another 46.5 years and spent a total of ¥13.34 million for health care, which, if he has kokumin hoken (meaning individual national insurance rather than national insurance through an employer), means he would spend about ¥4 million out of pocket, given that patients have to cover 30 percent of a medical bill themselves. A man with high blood pressure can expect to live 44.8 years more and spend ¥17.1 million. The ministry makes no projections for women because the results were “too diverse.”
In terms of other lifestyle determinants, a person who walks more than one hour a day will live 1.5 years longer and spend ¥350,000 less than someone who walks less than one hour a day (on average). However, the most interesting estimate is that someone who smokes will live 3.7 fewer years than someone who doesn’t and will thus spend less during his lifetime on medical care than someone who doesn’t smoke, though the ministry doesn’t specify by how much. The rule of thumb is that elderly people spend exponentially more on health care than do younger people, so if smokers die before they get old, the government saves considerably.