Japan Press Weekly

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2012 February 15 - 21 [WELFARE]

67 died last year from delay in obtaining medical services due to financial difficulties

In 2011, 67 people died due to delays in receiving medical treatments for economic reasons, according to a survey that a national organization of democratic medical institutions released on February 20.

The Japan Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions (Min-iren) surveyed its member institutions comprised of 143 hospitals and 520 clinics.

Commenting on the survey result, Min-iren Secretary General Nagase Fumio at a news conference said that 42 of the deceased probably did not seek medical assistance because their national insurance cards had been invalidated due to their failure to pay the premiums. He also said that despite having insurance cards, 25 of the deceased refrained from seeking medical attention because they could not afford to pay the medical fees.

Of the 67 deceased, men between 50 and 60 years old account for 72%.

Nagase presented some cases, including the case of a 51-year-old self-employed male worker who received a short-term insurance card because he fell behind in his health insurance premium payments. Although he was diagnosed with cancer at a non-Min-iren hospital, he decided against treatment because it was costly. After that, his condition got worse and worse. When he was hospitalized at a Min-iren hospital, it was too late. At the time of his death, his family’s main income was his wife’s small earnings from part-time work and his home gas supply was cut off due to non-payment of gas bills.

Nagase said, “Based on our survey result, we estimate that more than 5,500 people across Japan died from not seeking medical attention in time.”

Min-iren is urging the government to reduce patients’ share of payments at hospitals and increase its share of contributions in order to lower the rates for premiums.