User:Nanaka Takeuchi/Health insurance

Japan[ edit]
Main article: Health care in Japan

There are two major types of insurance programs available in Japan – Employees Health Insurance (健康保険 Kenkō-Hoken), and National Health Insurance (国民健康保険 Kokumin-Kenkō-Hoken). National Health insurance is designed for people who are not eligible to be members of any employment-based health insurance program. Although private health insurance is also available, all Japanese citizens, permanent residents, and non-Japanese with a visa lasting one year or longer are required to be enrolled in either National Health Insurance or Employees Health Insurance.

Employee’s Health Insurance covers workers’ disease, injury, and death for both of work relationship and non-work relationship. The coverage of Employee’s Health Insurance is a maximum of 180 days per year of medical care for a work-related disease or injury and 180 days per year for non-work-related disease and injury. Employers and employees need to contribute evenly to covered by Employee’s Health Insurance.

Health Insurance for the elderly started in 1983 based on the Health Care for the Aged Law in 1982, which brought cross-subsidization for many health insurance systems to offer the financial assistance to the elderly for the exchange of the payment of medical coverage fee. This health insurance is arranged for those who are 70 and above and those with disability who are 65 to 69 for prevention and curative medical care services.

An issue of the Healthcare System
One of the concerns about the healthcare system of Japan is the fast population aging. One-third of the total healthcare cost is using for the elderly. The healthcare spending is relating the fast population aging because of longer hospital stay, end-of-life care, and the change of health insurance plan. The more population aging happens, the more people will stay in a hospital, then the cost of healthcare increase. The population aging also boosts the amount of end-of-life care resulting in the incase of healthcare spending. The change on the health insurance plan is also contributed to the problem. When retiring employees shift the health insurance from Employee’s Health Insurance to Health Insurance for the elderly, the local healthcare expenditures will increase since Health Insurance for the elderly is authorized by a public organization.