Japan Press Weekly

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2008 November 12 - 18 [WELFARE]

Health minister promises guidance on the issue of children living without health insurance

Health Minister Masuzoe Yoichi has promised to instruct local governments to issue short-term certificates to children who are without health insurance.

At the House of Councilors Committee on Audit meeting on November 17, Masuzoe responded to Japanese Communist Party representative Nihi Sohei, who requested that the Health Ministry drive home to local authorities the need to issue short term health insurance certificates to households with children in place of the health insurance card which they do not have at present.

The Health Ministry on October 30 said that the findings of its survey showed that nearly 33,000 children are without health insurance because their national health insurance cards were invalidated because their parents were found to be in arrears on the payment of the insurance premiums.

Alarmed by the findings, the ministry instructed local governments to issue short-term certificates that are valid for a few months.

Pointing out that the ministry’s directive said that the short-term certificate should be issued on condition that it is “necessity to receive medical treatment”, Nihi said, “Can local government employees determine whether medical treatment is necessary or not?”

Mauzoe said, “Employees can’t do that because they aren’t doctors. If parents tell the local authorities that they cannot afford to pay the fees for their children’s medical treatment at medical institutions, they can receive a short-term certificate.”

Nihi also pointed out that although the ministry’s directive prohibited municipalities from mechanically invalidating health insurance cards of households, local governments are invalidating health insurance cards based only on the length of the period of their being in arrears and asked the ministry to conduct a further investigation into the matter.