December 18, 2009

The Health and Welfare Ministry has decided to ask the Diet to amend the National Health Insurance Law to issue six-month insurance cards for minors in senior high school, up to the age of 18, who are currently left without health insurance coverage because their parents are in arrears with the National Health Insurance premium payments.

The amendment, if enacted, will be the second of its kind after one that was enacted in April to enable minors up to junior high school age to receive medical care at hospitals and clinics using health insurance cards if their guardians do not have the health insurance cards because of arrears in premiums.

The Japanese Communist Party in cooperation with various citizens’ movements has consistently demanded that the government take measures to leave no child without health insurance cards, leading to a government survey to determine the present state of high school students without health insurance cards.
- Akahata, December 18, 2009