Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2013 February 6 - 12 [WELFARE]

Handicapped protest state move pressing local gov’t to abolish free medical service

A civil group supporting the handicapped and their families in Yamanashi Prefecture lodged a protest on February 5 with the welfare ministry against the state’s pressure on the prefectural government to abandon its free medical care system for the seriously handicapped.

Protestors are members of the association to protect the medical expenses subsidy system for severely handicapped persons. Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Tamura Tomoko and JCP Yamanashi Prefectural assemblywoman Kogoshi Tomoko accompanied them.

At the persistent request of disability groups, the Yamanashi prefectural government introduced a free medical care service for the seriously disabled in April 2008. Both the prefecture and each municipality in the prefecture share the costs equally.

The central government has pressured the prefecture into putting an end to this program by cutting the state subsidy granted to the prefecture for the national health insurance system. The prefectural authority is considering changing the program into one in which disabled patients are required to pay the expenses at medical facilities and then given a full refund a few months later.

JCP lawmaker Tamura Tomoko demanded that the national government stop reducing the subsidy to the prefecture, saying, “It is a matter of grave concern that the central administration is trying to worsen the health care program for severely handicapped persons.”

Uto Kenji, representing the association, stressed that the free medical care service is a “lifeline” for the seriously handicapped who are forced to live a difficult life due to low incomes. He added that it is outrageous for the government to punish the autonomous body that set up the free medical care system prior to the state.

One member of a disabled person’s family said, “If the current program is turned into a refund system, we will have to pay 300,000 yen a month for home medical treatment. We must have 900,000 yen on hand since the money is repaid to us after three months. Under such a system, we cannot afford to receive necessary treatment.”