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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Month-long sit-in against adverse revision of medical insurance begins

A month-long sit-in outside the Diet building called for by the Tokyo Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions (Tokyo Min'iren) began on April 17 to scrap the bills to adversely revise the medical insurance system. Thirty-one citizens took part in the day's action. The federation is calling for more grassroots action to stop the legislation.

Even now, there are people who are discouraged from consulting doctors because they cannot afford to pay their bills. In the meeting at the start of the sit-in, a speaker said that a 63-year-old man went missing for two days after he was diagnosed as having a brain infarction and was told to go to hospital. The man was afraid of being unable to pay the costs.

If the bills to adversely revise the medical insurance system are enacted, elderly patients aged 70-74 will have to pay 20 percent of the medical costs, instead of the present 10 percent.

A staff member at the Tokyo Health and Medical Cooperative Union said, "Although they can afford to pay health insurance premiums, they will be forced to pay more for treatment. For sickly elderly people, the 20 percent charge is too high. More and more people are likely to be discouraged from visiting doctors."

Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji and JCP House of Representatives member Kasai Akira encouraged the protesters.
- Akahata, April 18, 2006