Patients will face more sufferings if medical reform bill is enacted

The medical reform bill the ruling parties are trying hard to enact in the present Diet session (which will end on June 19) is a bill to force patients to pay more for medical treatment.

Answering questions from lawmakers at the House of Representatives Health, Labor, and Welfare Committee meeting on June 11, six experts in medical affairs pointed out some of the negative effects the revision of the medical insurance system might have.

None of the six experts said they are in favor of the bill.

Murou Noboru, Japanese Medical and Dental Practitioners for Improvement of Medical Care chair, expressed his opposition saying, "Further increases in the patients' financial burden under the prolonged recession will have adverse effects not only on life and health but on the nation's economy."

On the same day, four people from the medical institution operator Ken'yukai staged a sit-in in front of the Diet Building in protest against the bill, saying, "The bill, if enacted, will make it harder for medical institutions to save people's lives.

A 25-year-old man at the sit-in said how shocked he was when he was told by an 80-year-old patient that "if the medical expenses continue to go up, we can only afford to go to the hospital a week before we die."

A recent survey shows that nearly 60 percent of the respondents said they are opposed to the legislation. (end)