March 23, 2016
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2016 March 23 - 29 [SOCIAL ISSUES]
63 people died due to delays in seeking treatment at hospitals because of poverty |
Out of the 63, 53% were found to be uninsured due to delinquency in payment of healthcare insurance premiums. Of them, 75% fell behind in their payments because premiums were too high for them to afford. Those who were jobless or worked under non-regular contracts accounted for 65% of the total.
Following are some examples of the death from delay in seeking medical care.
A woman in her 40s was transported by ambulance to hospital due to cardio-respiratory arrest. She was unemployed. The source of income for her family of five came mainly from her parents’ pension benefits. It was a typical impoverished family. None of the family members had healthcare insurance. After her death, the family began receiving public welfare assistance.
A woman in her 60s, when taken to hospital, was suffering from terminal breast cancer. Until right before her death, she was looking for a job. She was laid off from a printing company where she had worked for 30 years. After she lost the job, she had to live on the small amount of compensation associated with her dismissal, taking care of her son who was shut off from social life.
When a man in his 70s came to hospital, his esophagus cancer was too advanced to keep him alive. He had to take care of his wife and mother, depending only on a monthly income of 100,000 yen he earned from his part-time job. Unable to afford to pay neither pension nor insurance premiums, the entire family was left without any public benefits. He finally decided to apply for public welfare assistance and became eligible to receive support, but it was too late.
A woman in her 50s lived with her husband suffering from income insecurity. It was so difficult for her to pay medical bills for breast cancer treatments that she had to discontinue the therapy. The cancer spread through her body and she died.
All these cases highlight problems associated with the lack of support from family members because they are also in poverty, have low-paid and unstable jobs, heavy medical expenses, and point to flaws in the welfare programs available through municipal governments and the central government.
It is necessary to reduce patients’ share of burdens for insurance premiums and medical bills at hospital; expand medical, nursing-care, and welfare services; improve public assistance programs, and increase minimum hourly wages for all.
Min-iren Secretary General Kishimoto Keisuke said, “The poverty-associated deaths revealed in this survey is just the tip of the iceberg. It is important for the central government to maintain the universal healthcare insurance system and to support local governments and medical institutions so that they can improve their assistance measures.
Past related articles:
> 56 died due to being too late to see doctor because of poverty [May 8, 2015]
> Moneyless 57 people died due to delay in seeing doctor [May 20, 2014]
> 58 died from delay in seeking medical care due to economic reason [March 30, 2013]
> 67 died last year from delay in obtaining medical services due to financial difficulties [February 21, 2012]
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