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Ministry wants workers to pay 30% of health costs
Company
employees will be required to pay 30 percent of their medical costs,
rather than the current 20 percent, to provide funds needed to save the
debt-ridden national health insurance systems from collapsing, a draft
bill said Tuesday. Most company
employees now cover 20 percent of their medical costs when they receive
care. However, because the health insurance systems covering them are on
the verge of financial collapse, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry
has decided to raise the payment to 30 percent in a bill it submitted for
consideration to the ruling coalition. Under the draft
bill, elderly people will also be required to pay more. Beginning in
fiscal 2002, the age to qualify for the elderly medical insurance system
that covers 90 percent of their medical costs needs to be raised by five
years to 75. The new system
planned by the ministry, therefore, requires those over 75 to pay 10
percent of their medical costs, those between 70 and 74 to foot 20 percent
and those under 70 to pay 30 percent. Officials of the
ministry said they planned to table the bill to the Diet next year and
hope that the measures will take effect in October 2002. But
the ministry's schedule to implement the hikes will apparently face
opposition from company employees, elderly people and the Japan Medical
Association. (Compiled from Mainichi and wire reports, Sept. 25, 2001)
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