Japan Press Weekly

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2014 June 18 - 24 [WELFARE]

New law will impose reduced welfare services on the public

The ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties on June 18 in the House of Councilors plenary session forcibly enacted a medical and nursing-care “reform” bill which imposes on the general public reduced services and heavier burdens, while opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party, objected to the bill.

The bill is designed to revise laws pertaining to the healthcare and public nursing-care insurance systems as a single package.

Under the bill, the government plans to cut services covered by the nursing-care insurance system, tighten requirements for entering special nursing-care facilities for the elderly, and carry out a reduction in the number of hospital beds with punitive sanctions for failure to comply.

JCP Upper House member Koike Akira in a discussion prior to the vote criticized the bill for “threatening the very basis of existence of the medical and nursing care systems and causing a further deterioration of services”. The bill will lead to a collapse of medical services and an increase in nursing-care “refugees”, Koike added.

Secretary General of the Central Council for the Promotion of Social Security Yamaguchi Kazuhide pointed out that if the new law is implemented, local governments will have to deal with nursing-care refugee problems caused by cuts in services and stricter requirements for special nursing-care homes without any help from the national government.

Referring to results of a survey conducted by the council, Yamaguchi said that 70% of 646 municipalities in 23 prefectures already have difficulty in dealing with those problems. He expressed his determination that together with local governments, he will call on the state to fulfill its social responsibility.