The government is considering a new health insurance system in which people aged 75 or older would be covered by the national health insurance plan or a health care system for corporate employees, it has been learned.

The current system, introduced in April 2008, is unpopular with senior citizens as it puts people aged 75 and over under a uniform health care program, separate from other programs. This system is aimed at clearly showing how much senior citizens have to pay for the medical services they receive.

At present, 50 percent of the costs of medical services for people 75 or older is covered by the government, 40 percent by contributions from health care insurance plans for employees or the self-employed and the remaining 10 percent by senior citizens.

Shortly after its introduction, the system was criticized as discriminatory by the elderly because of its separation from the other health care plans.Under the current program, senior citizens have been issued health insurance certificates, separately from those for the rest of their families, and health insurance premiums have been withheld from their pensions. 

Because of the shortcomings of the system, the Democratic Party of Japan pledged in the House of Representatives election campaign last year that it would abolish the health care plan and merge it with other government-funded programs. 

A gist of the new plan is scheduled to be officially announced on Friday in an interim report by the Council for the Reform of Health Care Services for the Elderly, headed by Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Akira Nagatsuma, officials said Saturday. 

The panel will work out a final report by the end of the year and have the current system replaced with the envisaged one at the beginning of fiscal 2013, they said. 

According to the gist of the planned reform, most people aged 75 and older will be covered by the national health insurance plan run by city, town or village governments. 

If senior citizens or the children who support them have jobs, they will be covered by corporate employees' health care systems, such as corporate insurance unions for major company employees and their families or the nationwide health insurance union for small and medium-size firms, according to the officials.

The envisioned plan is similar to the one that existed before implementation of the current system as it will be linked either to the national insurance system or a corporate employees' health care system.

Under the old system, however, it was left unclear what percentage of the rapidly swelling medical expenses for people aged 75 or older should be shouldered by employees or the self-employed, who were covered by the same health care systems as the senior citizens. 

To make the new system more transparent, payments for the planned system for senior citizens will be separated from employees or the self-employed in the same way as the current system. Similarly, the portion covering medical bills for those 75 or over will be covered by regional insurance entities organized by prefectures, they said.

The current system of having the senior citizens pay premiums equivalent to 10 percent of medical bills will be left unchanged, according to the officials.

However, the officials noted the unpopular practice of issuing separate insurance certificates for the aged and their families and the automatic deduction of the premiums from pensions will be abolished.

It has not yet been decided what formula would be used to cover contributions from premiums collected from employees or the self-employed. Medical bills for the elderly--estimated at 12 trillion yen for fiscal 2010--are expected to balloon to about 15 trillion yen in fiscal 2015, the ministry said.  

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