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Japan's Parliament Approves Health Bill
Japan's Parliament on Friday approved one of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's key reforms meant to save Japan's health care system from bankruptcy by raising insurance premiums for the elderly and salaried workers. The bill became law after the 245-seat upper house voted 129-3 in favor of it, spokeswoman Takai Minegishi said. The lower house approved the measures on June 21. The legislation has been the focus of partisan bickering between Mr. Koizumi's ruling bloc and opposition parties that had threatened to delay the reforms, already two years overdue. On Friday, opposition leaders accused Mr. Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition of stymieing debate on the legislation package, boycotting the vote. They plan to submit a no-confidence motion against Mr. Koizumi's cabinet next week. The reforms, which go into effect next April, seek to shift more of the cost of medical care to taxpayers and stabilize the public insurance system's finances over the next five years. Japan's health care insurance system guarantees low-cost medical care for nearly all the nation's 126 million people -- and has often been cited as a major factor in the nation's miraculous post-World War II economic surge. But the system, a hodgepodge of private and public programs, is on the verge of going bust. Its finances have been in the red for seven of the past eight years, and rising health care costs are threatening to further deplete government coffers already strained by declining tax revenues caused by more than a decade of economic rot. Under the new laws, salaried employees and their families will be required to pay 30% of their medical bills, from 20% currently, and contribute a bigger chunk of their paychecks to monthly premiums. Payments will also rise for the elderly and employees of small and medium-sized businesses. However, medical payments and prescription drug costs for infants will fall. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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