Elderly at a loss over health scheme payments
Written by Chang on Friday, October 10th, 2008
Elderly at a loss over health scheme payments
The Yomiuri Shimbun
More than 150,000 people have received written demands for unpaid premiums for the health care insurance program for those aged 75 and older.
About 20 percent of those covered by the program have not paid premiums, resulting in an unprecedented situation that demonstrates the extent of confusion over the different payment system for the new program.
Under the program, which was launched in April, automatic deductions of insurance premiums from pension benefits were introduced in most municipalities, almost all at the same time.
However, in 29 municipalities in five prefectures, including 14 wards in Tokyo, the start of the automatic deductions had to be delayed to October because more time was needed to prepare for the new system.
Elderly people covered by the insurance program in these affected areas were supposed to pay the insurance premiums due before October directly to financial institutions or municipal offices on three occasions in July, August and September.
From October, subsequent premiums would be paid through the automatic deductions. In July, the municipalities sent payment notices to those who were required to directly pay their premiums. But some were not aware they had received the notices and failed to pay.
Many people used to pay their premiums by bank transfer before April, when they were covered by the national health insurance system. It is therefore thought that many of them assumed these bank transfers would continue under the new insurance program.
Of the 29 municipalities in which the introduction of automatic deductions was delayed until October, 20 have sent reminders to those covered by the new insurance program who have failed to pay premiums.
Nineteen municipalities, including Yokohama and Saitama, have been sending letters about nonpayment since the July payment came due, while the Iruma city government in Saitama Prefecture started sending them for the August payment.
The remaining nine municipalities have yet to send written demands because they are concerned that some people might be shocked to receive such letters.
In Meguro Ward, Tokyo, about 6,200 people, or 27 percent, out of about 23,000 residents covered by the health care insurance program for the elderly, failed to make the July payment.
In late September, the Meguro Ward office sent written demands to those who had not paid their premiums. In response, on Oct. 2 and 3 alone, about 300 of them came to the ward office. Many of them paid their premiums at the counter in the ward office while at the same time insisting that the premiums could already have been paid by bank transfer.
In Ota Ward, Tokyo, about 12,000 people, or 46 percent of those covered by the insurance program, have received written demands for the July payment, while about 10,000 people have received demands for the August payment.
A couple aged 84 and 79, who came to the ward office Tuesday, complained about the payment system saying payment methods changed so often that the system had become too difficult to understand.
An 86-year-old woman, who came to the Shibuya Ward office Monday, said: “I’m living on my own and only found out [about the payments] after a friend of mine told me. It made me panic.”
Many people who complained over the phone to municipalities said they believed their insurance premiums had already been deducted from their pension benefit payments.
An official of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s division for medical care of the elderly said: “We’ve been telling municipalities to make sure people living there are informed [about the payment system], but people are still saying that the system is hard to understand. So we’d like to work even harder [to inform people adequately].”
