Unlike salaried workers, who despite health insurance must pay 30 percent of their medical bills, most doctors in Japan are paying less under a different scheme that favors medical professionals, insurance union officials said Thursday.

Although a hike in April raised the medical bill burden for salaried workers to 30 percent, doctors and their dependents in all but two of the profession's 47 prefecture-based insurance unions pay less, some just 20 percent.

The national health insurance unions provide coverage to medical and other professionals on a regional basis.