A new health insurance scheme that covers people aged 75 or over began April 1. As their medical costs are more expensive than those of younger generations, they have been left out of ordinary health insurance schemes. One of the aims of the new system is to reduce medical costs by making participants conscious of them. The burden of new insurance premium payments will be keenly felt by many elderly people as the government tries to restrain increases in pension payments.
Some elderly people may give up seeing doctors because of their financial burden. Citizens, lawmakers and the central and local governments need to watch how the new scheme affects elderly people. The central government should be ready to remedy the system if necessary.
The new system covers about 13 million people, including about 2 million people who used to be dependents of their children (private and public sector employees). These people did not have to pay health insurance premiums. To avoid a sudden increase in their financial burden, they are exempted from premium payments for the first six months. After that, the burden will gradually increase until it reaches a normal level in two years.