Japan Press Weekly

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2008 December 3 - 9 [WELFARE]

Large number of the elderly will likely lose health insurance under adversely revised system

A large number of elderly people will likely lose their health insurance under the newly introduced healthcare insurance system for the elderly aged 75 or over.

It was previously prohibited to take insurance cards away from people aged 75 or older even when they were in arrears with their health insurance premiums payments but the new system that began in April will invalidate their insurance cards if they fail to pay premiums for more than one year.

At a Lower House committee meeting on December 5, Health and Welfare Minister Masuzoe Yoichi stated that out of all the people aged over 75 whose premiums are not deducted from their pension benefits, 8.4 percent are in arrears, probably because they cannot afford to pay.

At present, about two million people are low-income earners in Japan. Judging from this, more than a hundred thousand people are expected to fail to pay their premiums regularly.

If nothing is done to correct the system, a large number of elderly people will be left without insurance cards next April.

The Japanese Communist Party is calling for disallowing the confiscation of insurance cards and the abolition of the present system on the grounds that invalidating insurance cards will imperil many people’s lives.