Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2015 May 27 - June 2 [POLITICS]

Ruling coalition forcibly enacts bill to increase people’s burdens for public health insurance system

The Liberal Democratic and Komei parties on May 27 used their force of majority in the House of Councilors to enact a bill to adversely revise the public medical insurance system. The Japanese Communist, Democratic, and Social Democratic parties voted against the bill.

In a discussion prior to the vote, JCP lawmaker Koike Akira criticized the bill for undermining the very basis of Japan’s universal health insurance program.

Citing that the bill will transfer financial responsibilities for the National Health Insurance Program to prefectural governments from municipal governments, Koike said that it will impose heavier financial burdens on people who are already struggling to pay high insurance premiums.

Pointing out that the bill will slash the government share of contributions to the public health insurance system that mainly covers workers at medium- and small-sized businesses, the JCP lawmaker criticized the government for trying to evade its responsibility for the insurance program.

Koike also said that the bill will increase patients’ fees for hospital meals and introduce a fixed extra charge for visiting major general hospitals without medical referral letters. He stressed that the measures will discourage people from seeing doctors until their conditions seriously deteriorate.


Past related articles:
> Intractable disease patients express concern over revision of medical insurance system [May 15, 2015]
> Bill to increase medical insurance premiums passes Lower House committee [April 24 & 25, 2015]