Japan to curb feeding bed-bound elderly by tube

Part of effort to trim $422B annual health-care costs

TOKYO — For the first time, Japan is trying to curb the number of bedbound elderly people kept alive, sometimes for years, by feeding tubes.

Following news reports by Bloomberg and others, the government is planning to cut payouts on insertions in new patients and encourage home care.

About a quarter-million Japanese elderly live on feeding tubes. Faced with a heavy debt burden, Japan is trying to trim growth in a $422-billion annual health bill by releasing patients from hospitals faster.

The Health Ministry also plans to boost reimbursements to institutions that encourage rehabilitation to help the bedridden eat by mouth. The changes, effective April 1, mark the first time Japan has cut these government reimbursements.

Most of the elderly who get put on stomach tubes in Japan never get taken off them. While almost a quarter of those fed via a tube to the stomach had the potential to eat by mouth again, only about two per cent of them did so and had the tube removed, according to a study.

Japan’s shrinking labour force means fewer taxpayers pay for this state-funded care of seniors.