Keep promise to abolish unjust medical system for elderly: JCP Koike to DPJ

Japan Press Weekly

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Keep promise to abolish unjust medical system for elderly: JCP Koike to DPJ

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Koike Akira on a TV debate program aired on October 26 demanded that the Democratic Party of Japan immediately abolish the unjust health insurance scheme for people aged 75 as it had called for when it was an opposition party.

Referring to the need for the abolition of the controversial medical system, the restoration of additional benefits for single-parent households (only applicable to mothers with dependent children), and the revision of the “self-support” law for the disabled, Koike said, “Everyone believed that if the DPJ assumed power, all these issues would be quickly addressed as it had promised during the election campaign. However, many people now suspect that these issues may be put on the back burner.”

As soon as the DPJ became a ruling force, it began moving away from its public promises. It now says it will delay the abolition of the discriminatory health insurance scheme until the end of 2012.

Koike said, “You must stick to what you promised. When you were still an opposition party, you submitted a bill jointly with our party to immediately abolish the system in question.”

As for a plan to replace the Social Insurance Agency with a new institution as the previous government had decided, Koike said, “There is a possibility that the new organization will be more irresponsible and non-transparent than the present Social Insurance Agency. This is what the DPJ itself was asserting when it was the opposition force.”

Koike pointed out that the new organization will possibly be a place for retired bureaucrats to obtain executive posts, in the so-called “amakudari (descent from heaven)” practice, and will weaken the involvement and influence of the Diet in its operations. He said, “Also the DPJ, during the election campaign, called for the freeze to the plan by the previous government to disband the Social Insurance Agency. Despite this, the new organization will start operations in January with a restructured staff with a reduction of up to 3,000 employees. This will affect the speed in which pension records can be tracked and identified.”

When Liberal Democratic Party representative Omura Hideaki said, “The DPJ is breaking its promises,” Koike said, “You are the one who initiated such an irresponsible organization, so are not qualified to criticize the DPJ regarding this matter.”

- Akahata, October 28, 2009