Government workers’ parliamentary duties linked to higher medical costs: study

A study by Keio University and other institutions has found a correlation between the length of parliamentary committee deliberations and higher medical expenses among national government employees working in 10 ministries and agencies in Tokyo’s Kasumigaseki district.

As concerns grow over the long hours civil servants spend responding to parliamentary inquiries, the findings highlight the importance of appropriate health management for government workers. The paper was recently published in an international occupational health journal.

A research team led by Koryu Sato, a lecturer at Keio University, examined statistical data from medical claims submitted when national government employees visited healthcare providers.

The researchers used the annual deliberation hours of standing committees in both chambers of parliament related to each ministry’s policy areas as an indicator of workload.

The study covered a period from 2016 through 2023 and about 250,000 employees between the ages of 18 and 50 who worked at the headquarters of 10 government ministries and agencies.

The team analyzed 6,454 outpatient medical claims selected for a statistical survey from claims reviewed each April.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry had the highest average monthly outpatient medical expenses per employee, at ¥5,125 ($33). It was followed by the Justice Ministry, at ¥5,056, and the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, at ¥4,637.

Mental health-related medical expenses were particularly prominent at the health ministry. The Foreign Ministry had the lowest average, at ¥2,374.

The health ministry also recorded the longest cumulative committee deliberation time over the eight-year period, at 2,534 hours — more than 1,000 hours longer than the Cabinet Office, which ranked second.

The researchers found that when the number of committee deliberation hours per employee at a ministry or agency was 1% higher in a given year, outpatient medical expenses in April of the following year tended to be 0.25% higher.

Medical expenses at the Finance Ministry were relatively low. Sato noted, however, that the Budget Committee was not included in the analysis and that employees might also find it difficult to seek medical care because of their heavy workloads.

“We used committee deliberation hours as an indicator of how busy each ministry or agency was in this study, but the working hours and workloads of national government employees must be accurately assessed,” Sato said.