医療分 Insuring Japan

いりようぶん

or more simply put, Japanese health insurance.

Insurance is a key thing to have in Japan. Actually, you must have it. By Japanese law, you are required to be insured during your stay here ( exception: this does not include tourists). There are several methods of insurance. 

• Interglobal
•  社会保険 Shakai Hoken
• 国民健康保険 Kokumin Kenko Hoken
• 私学共済 Shigakou Kyousai

Interglobal is a foreigner special, where I am told that it will only cover you for a year, I believe this limit to be shorter; when I received my information packet and Bronze card, it was only good for three months. Possibly Interglobal is used more often as traveler's health insurance when visiting Japan. It costs 2900 yen and would be deducted from my salary. Since Interac applied for me, my insurance was linked to my salary and gets deducted from my paychecks rather than paying for it in person
.

Nevertheless, that was canceled in all of a day as I received my kokumin kenko hoken. Kokumin hoken is part of the National Health Insurance program. It is for people who are unemployed. I fall into this category, as I was not employed in Japan in the preceding year. This insurance is less than half the price of the Employees Health Insurance. I pay 2000 yen, just over 20 bucks, and it covers 70% of my medical costs. So far I have only used it for going to the dentist. Since I was already in Japan at the time and could easily do it myself, Interac did not take part in the application process. I also pay for it myself via receipt tickets that I have for each month. 

Next year I will have to graduate to Shakai Hoken, as I will have been employed in Japan the previous year. This will cost 8.2% of my salary and it will also cover 70% of my medical costs, as well as other things.

The last type of insurance I mentioned is for private companies and universities. It is similar to Shakai Hoken.

To the left is my Interglobal card and the right is my Kokumin Hoken.
You simply present this card upon entering anywhere
you would need medical or dental attention

How to get insurance:

Interac automatically applied to Interglobal for me since I was not present in Japan to apply for it myself (also just because they are nice guys and want to make your life comfortable and easy). Therefore, they said that even before arrival in Japan I was covered by insurance...I am not certain what this means, since I did not have official documentation for being covered until 2-3 weeks until after I got to Japan. However, Interac assured me that I was covered before I left incase something happens on the plane or at the airport. When it arrived on my doorstep my insurance package contained papers explaining the different programs  (bronze, silver and gold) as well as other necessary readables -- of which I had no intention of doing-- and, most importantly, this little gold card that I would carry around with me to the doctor.

Well I did away with that since it cost more, and seemed to expire in three months anyway, and applied for the Unemployed Persons Insurance, kokumin kenko hoken. To do this you simply go to your respective city office and apply for it in person. Unfortunately, no: Interac cannot apply for this type of insurance for you since it needs to be done with the applicant present. However, there was ridiculously little paperwork involved, so that I thought that they must have misunderstood my purpose. But low and behold, about two weeks later the insurance papers were delivered to my door. These papers included my flimsy but valuable insurance card and a type of receipt ticket with the value and a month stamped on each of them. You simply take the ticket for the appropriate month to any bank or post office to pay for that months insurance in person.

This is one of the insurance tickets that you receive in the mail.
You might be able to see where it says it is for December and how it is due on December 28th of 2011.
It gets stamped upon payment and acts as a receipt thereafter. 

But please note, you cannot go to a city office that is not respective to your living arrangements. They will simply wave you away and keep telling you ' No, no' followed by the appropriate city office.