Ruling parties agree to make salaried workers pay more for medical treatment from April 2003

The government and three ruling parties on February 11 agreed with Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's proposal that salaried workers with health insurance should pay 30 percent of hospital bills from April 2003, instead of the 20 percent at present.

Although the ruling Liberal Democratic, Komei, and New Conservative parties were unanimous in increasing the insured salaried workers' burden, ruling party members had been divided over when to start the new rate.

Prime Minister Koizumi has been sticking to April 2003, the beginning of the new fiscal year. Akahata said Koizumi wanted to demonstrate his firm resolve to carry out reforms in spite of the fall in the approval rating for his cabinet.

The insured patients' share of medical expenses was increased from 10 to 20 percent in September 1997, which kept many people restrain from visiting doctors. If patients' share of the payment is increased to 30 percent, people will be even more discouraged to receive medical services.

The new system will also raise the premiums for government-run health insurance from the present 7.5 percent to 8.2 percent of annual income. This affects employees of smaller businesses.

Katsumi Nagata, deputy secretary of the Japan Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions, said that raising the share of medical charges to 30 percent is tantamount to destroying the public medical insurance system. (end)