Health Insurance - kokumin or Kaisha?

[Mennon]

I was working part-time for a while and entered the Kokumin health insurance system. My Mother-in-law did it for me, I have no idea how much it costs. I was sick once and used it, no dramas. Now I've got a full-time contract in front of me ready to go, and I'm wondering why I should voluntarily have 3manyen taken out of my pay every month.

What are the pros and cons of both?

I don't want you to think I'm too lazy to do the research myself. It's just that... this is a form of research, isn't it?

[Mennon]

Damn! I meant kokumin OR kaisha. Stupid.

[Blah Pete]

Kokumin is designed to cover basic medical services only and has a high deductible. Also one major point is Kokumin does not cover hospitalization costs. If you want hospital costs covered you have to get the extra government backed insurance and it is not cheap.
The company may pay up to 50% of the insurance costs on the company plan.

[American Oyaji]

When I worked for NOVA, I had company insurance and had no problems.

I just took in my Hokensho and I got charged very little money ever. I got free eye exams, but only because I knew the owners daughter.

[Blah Pete]

I just took in my Hokensho and I got charged very little money ever.

If you were on Kokumin you would have had to pay more.

[hakuman]

You arent voluntarily having 3man taken off your paycheck, its a legal thing. If you are working more than 3/4 the hours of a full-time worker in your company doing the same position as you, your company legally has to put you on it, and you legally have to be on it. This means that if a full-time worker doing the same position as you works 8 hours a day, then if you work 6 or more hours/day, you have to be on it. If you are a full time worker, then there is no way out of it. You cant switch back to the kokumin kenkou hokken, because one of the requirements of getting it is that your company has to supply documents that say you dont work enough hours to qualify for the shakai hoken (which you called kaisha hokken).

You could try to get your company to let you off of it, but I really doubt they will. If they (or you) ever got audited, they (and you) would be expected to back pay for all the time you were supposed to be on the insurance. If you wanted to go onto kokumin kenko hokken, they would have to submit false documents which opens them up to potential litigation in the future.

This is all assuming you are working full time like you said in your post. If you are, then basically your fucked. The only way out is to find a part-time job.

Now before anyone goes on anymore about Nova, they are not currently in compliance with the law, and are facing a big penalty at the moment, as they have recently been audited. One way they are thinking to get around this is to drop their lessons to 40 minute lessons, and give the teachers two minutes on either side of each lesson as prep time and follow up time, and only count these 44 minutes as working time. Then they will say that their managers are the full time workers that they are comparing the teachers working hours to, meaning that the teachers will be working less than 3/4 the hours of a full time teacher (manager). Its a little shady, but they may be able to get away with it through some loophole.

[Mennon]

Thanks Hakuman. Yea, seems like FT Kaisha insurance is the way to go. I'll just have to go to the doctors everytime I have a sniffle to get my money's worth. When in rome etc.
BTW Talked to a guy who used to recruit for NOVA and I think Nova have looked at it and decided that what you said is what they are going to do.

[hakuman]

Well, I know its what they want to do, but its still not clear whether that is ok or not. They pretty much have to get government approval to do it.