politics

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Adversely revised law forces over 1,000 seniors to leave care facilities for economic reasons

At least 1,011 elderly people have left nursing-care facilities throughout the country because they could no longer afford the heavier burdens of usage fees imposed by the revised nursing-care insurance law that took effect last October.

The revelation came on July 5 in surveys conducted by the Central Council for Promotion of Social Security and the Japanese Communist Party Dietmembers group.

These surveys show that a growing number of the elderly are forced to leave nursing-care facilities or give up moving into them for financial reasons, and that among them there are a considerable number who desperately need nursing care.

Pressed by the JCP's repeated requests, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry instructed prefectural governments to carry out a survey on those who left the facilities. The ministry is expected to compile the results of the survey before long.

Last year, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Komei Party, and the Democratic Party of Japan used their majority to adversely revise the nursing-care insurance law so as to exclude expenses for meals and beds in nursing-care facilities from insurance benefits, imposing expenses on users.
- Akahata, July 6, 2006