[Study of yearly changes in intractable disease patients receiving financial aid for treatment]

Yearly changes of intractable disease patients receiving financial aid for treatment were observed for 24 intractable disease patients from 1983 to 1987. The results obtained were as follows. 1. The number of intractable disease patients receiving financial aid for treatment increased from 1983 to 1987 for 23 of the diseases. Only the number of SMON patients did not increase. 2. Medical care expenditures for these patients also increased since 1983. Greater increases for in-patients than for out-patients were seen for Huntington's chorea and Behcet's disease, while larger increases were seen for out-patients with Parkinson's disease, Scleroderma.dermatomyositis.primary multiple myositis, Buerger's disease, and others. 3. The proportion of national health insurance holders among intractable disease patients was 42.1% as compared with 34.7% among total national patients. The proportion was especially higher for Huntington's chorea (64.6%), Parkinson's disease (64.1%) and SMON (59.4%) patients.