"Free Choice" Japan

[Osakadave]

http://www.freechoice.jp/

What I've heard is this is a last ditch effrort backed by the "private" insurance companies that want to keep their illegal gaijin stingining schemes afloat.

What's the thought out there in FGland?

[sublight]

It certainly looks that way. Can't blame them for trying, since it looks they're set to lose a huge portion of their business overnight.

If their real concern were over foreigners losing those "important expatriate benefits," though, the solution would be obvious: offer a new insurance program to cover those important expatriate benefits. Can't charge as much, of course, and if nobody goes for it that would indicate they weren't so important after all.

[Samurai_Jerk]

http://www.freechoice.jp/

What I've heard is this is a last ditch effrort backed by the "private" insurance companies that want to keep their illegal gaijin stingining schemes afloat.

What's the thought out there in FGland?

You are correct, sir.

Anyway, I don't think many guys on fat expact packages will be too worried about it and the only reason many teachers and factory workers have been enrolled in private insurance is because their employers are illegally refusing to enroll them in the national system and some local governments won't let them enroll either.

I know some people will get burned by this but from the J-government's perspective it makes plenty of sense.

[Behan]

The ironic or sadly funny thing about this is that teachers who work(ed) for big eikaiwa companies had no choice at all about being on Shakai Hoken, which is what they are(were) legally supposed to be on.
The eikaiwa companies lied and said the 'choices' were between Kokumin Kenko Hoken and the insurance they were providing. One guy pushed the private scheme at an orientation meeting.
These guys are scum buckets. They are just supposed to enroll their employees in shakai hoken. They will say things about the premiums being high or the employees only being able to get some part of three years' worth of nenkin payments back, but the real reason they are weaseling out of shakai hoken is because they would have to make half of the nenkin payments.

[TennoChinko]

I recently switched over to a Jap-gov't approved health insurance program. I thought it made sense for me - mainly getting rid of the pain-in-the-ass paperwork requirements for the offshore private insurance. Slightly elevated cholesterol readings etc also make more sense for me to seek treatment of some kind ... probably a condition that could exclude me from some private programs as a "preexisting condition".

However, I would not characterize all private offshore insurance providers as ripoffs. For example, I don't think the Danish IHI http://www.ihi.com/ is bad at all. I don't like most of the ones heavily advertised to expats - online research seems to indicate dodgy reimbursement policies and unsatisfied clients.

I am not sure that for those English teachers already being squeezed with minimal wage incomes that forcing them to enroll in the NHI and social pension program will improve the quality of their lives. Most wards will require them to pay up to two years of back premiums (a maximum of Y1,120,000). And, to make things clearer, some of the recent language coming out of the Ministries in charge are no longer describing it as a "benefit" but as what I always saw it as ... a tax.

[Taro Toporific]

http://www.freechoice.jp/
What's the thought out there in FGland?

[SIZE="2"]DEATH TO ALL freechoice SCUM! [/SIZE]



Rational: Freechoice means death me since ALL private insurance companies in the world refuse me coverage for being handicapped (the pre-existing conditions clause). If private insurance companies capture a significant market share, that would reduce the pool of J-National Health to the point of huge reduction of care/benefits.
(I have lived on and off in Canada, France and now Japan in national-health-care exile from the US since 1974. Grrr.)

[TennoChinko]

:ninja3: [SIZE="2"]DEATH TO ALL freechoice SCUM! [/SIZE]



Rational: Freechoice means death me since ALL private insurance companies in the world refuse me coverage for being handicapped (the pre-existing conditions clause). If private insurance companies capture a significant market share, that would reduce the pool of J-National Health to the point of huge reduction of care/benefits.
(I have lived on and off in Canada, France and now Japan in national-health-care exile from the US since 1974. Grrr.)

That's what I was concerned about (and also partly motivated me toward the Jap-Gov't insurance)- and one does not have to be handicapped to qualify for that concern. As I indicated, it could include conditions like hypothyroidism, elevated cholesterol or diabetes. Maybe not something a healthy 20 year old might be concerned about. However, after hitting 30, genetic/family history can creep up on you.

[American Oyaji]

The ironic or sadly funny thing about this is that teachers who work(ed) for big eikaiwa companies had no choice at all about being on Shakai Hoken, which is what they are(were) legally supposed to be on.

I got put on Shakai Hoken with no problem when at Nova. I was on it from day one, but then again, I had a J-wife and two kids as well, so I had someone who knew the system. And that might have been policy that any teacher married to a Japanese national automatically got put on it so there would be no complaints from the J-side.

[Behan]

I got put on Shakai Hoken with no problem when at Nova. I was on it from day one, but then again, I had a J-wife and two kids as well, so I had someone who knew the system. And that might have been policy that any teacher married to a Japanese national automatically got put on it so there would be no complaints from the J-side.

I think you might be right about that. It could also depend on when and where you were with Nova, too. I was married at the time, but at my orientation they told us our choices were between their company or Kokumin Kenko Hoken. They never even mentioned the existence of shakai hoken.

If you were near a base, do you think they might have felt some pressure from the US military to do the right thing? I was working with an ex-Nova union president one day when he got a phone call from one of the bases in Japan asking about the possibility of military spouses working for Nova.

[American Oyaji]

I think you might be right about that. It could also depend on when and where you were with Nova, too. I was married at the time, but at my orientation they told us our choices were between their company or Kokumin Kenko Hoken. They never even mentioned the existence of shakai hoken.

If you were near a base, do you think they might have felt some pressure from the US military to do the right thing? I was working with an ex-Nova union president one day when he got a phone call from one of the bases in Japan asking about the possibility of military spouses working for Nova.

I WAS near a base in fact. Hachinohe is the closest major city to Misawa Air Base, maybe an hour's drive away, but I don't think the base proximity had anything to do with it. We never had any military spouses working there in the 2 1/2 years I worked there and I was the second permanent teacher on staff there when they opened up. I saw the school go from 25 students on roll to over 700. My orientation occurred on site with the third permanent teacher who was also ex military married to a J-gal. A regional manager came up for our orientation, but by that time we were already teaching. I think they had a hard time getting teachers to come up to the inaka.

[Samurai_Jerk]

:ninja3: [SIZE="2"]DEATH TO ALL freechoice SCUM! [/SIZE]



Rational: Freechoice means death me since ALL private insurance companies in the world refuse me coverage for being handicapped (the pre-existing conditions clause). If private insurance companies capture a significant market share, that would reduce the pool of J-National Health to the point of huge reduction of care/benefits.
(I have lived on and off in Canada, France and now Japan in national-health-care exile from the US since 1974. Grrr.)

Taro, I used you as an example of why we need universal healthcare in the US in an argument with a Japan-based Bush-loving Obama hater last week. He actually said you did have a choice to go back and pay out of pocket as if that were a viable option. I can't believe people actually still toe that line.