Anti-people medical plan bulldozed through Lower House

The ruling parties (the Liberal Democratic, Komei, and Conservative parties) forcibly passed a bill to adversely revise the medical insurance system through the House of Representatives plenary session on June 21. The bill will impose a 1.5-trillion yen (about 12.4 billion dollars) additional burden on the people.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo, before the people who massed at the Lower House Building to protest against the bill, condemned such inappropriate passage by the ruling force.

Shii proposed that expensive drug prices and wasteful spending on public works be reviewed to avoid the heavy medical burden on the people, and promised that the JCP will make efforts to scrap the bill until the last minute of discussions in the House of Councilors.

The adverse revision of the medical insurance program will raise the salaried worker's share of medical costs to 30 percent from the present 20 percent. A worker's health insurance premium will increase by 30,000 yen (about 250 dollars) in average a year. The fixed 850 yen per medical care for the elderly people who are 70 and older will be abolished and their burden will be 10 percent (partially 20 percent). (end)