So in this video I wanted to talk about Japanese healthcare, medical costs and my experience in the last 15 years living in Japan
So the other day my wife Maiko told me that she had to go to the doctor
because she had a cold.
I asked her, "Didn't you just go like a few days ago?"
She said yeah, but that was for a skin rash,
and then I asked didn't she go a week before that?
And she said yeah, but that's different, that was for a stomachache.
For me, someone that grew up in the States,
that's kind of a lot of doctor visits.
I might go for a severe skin rash, but not for a cold or a stomachache,
which got me thinking about Japanese healthcare in general
and why people in Japan go to the doctor so much
compared to other countries like the US.
I mean, how is it in your country?
Does everyone go to the doctor for every little minor ailment
and what's the reasoning behind it?
Anyway, let me explain the basic Japanese healthcare system.
For those of you who don't know, Japan was ranked 11th
out of 195 countries in HAQ rankings.
The Japanese healthcare system is considered universal because
it's supposed to cover everyone in Japan.
So anyone living in the country, even a foreigner like myself,
have to pay into the system.
So insurance covers 70 to 90 % of all necessary doctor visits
and one of the things I appreciate about the Japan healthcare system
is you don't have to pay the full amount of your medical bill up front
and then later fill out some paperwork to claim a refund
Perfect for someone like me who hates paperwork.
So all you need to do when you arrive at the hospital clinic
is show your health care card.
Actually, I have one in my pocket right now.
Actually, I don't have it.
Right, here it is.
It has all my information, so I can't actually show you what's inside.
But I pretty much carry it around with me everywhere,
just in case, you never know.
What's nice, at the end of your visit the hospital will calculate
how much you need to pay and you're good to go.
And, to be honest, it's surprisingly cheap.
I'll get into the actual cost in a few moments.
So, again, people only pay about 30% of the total hospital bill
and sometimes it can be reduced down to 10%,
depending on other reasons.
And your monthly health insurance varies depending on your age,
income, type of work and where you live.
There are three main health care systems in Japan:
one for company employees,
two for civil servants, teachers and public workers,
and the third national insurance is for everyone else.
They all have pretty much the same coverage,
but if you're an employee, the company has to pay half of your health insurance,
which is awesome for most Japanese people.
So for example, let's do this in the U.S. dollars, so it's easier to reference.
If you're under 39 years old and you work a regular job in Tokyo
and you make $2400 a month, you only pay $120 for your insurance.
Now, if you make $5000, you pay about $350.
And, say, you're making the big bucks, you're making $10,000 a month,
you're paying about $525 in insurance.
I don't know, I think that's pretty reasonable. What do you guys think?
And how much do you guys pay for your monthly health care insurance?
And now, more to the point. Maiko goes to the hospital so many times.
Here are some regular doctor visits that I've had.
So my knee was bothering me after playing some basketball
I went to the doctor for an examination and got three x-rays
The total fee was $11 and the three x-rays only cost $2.50.
Another time I had a doctor consultation to pick up some medication
and it only cost those $3.50 to consult with the doctor.
Can you guys see now why Maiko goes to the doctor so much?
It's just so cheap, relatively speaking,
knowing those numbers, it makes so much more sense to me
why Japanese people go to the hospital and go to the clinic
for every little sickness, or illness, or whatever happens,
they just go see the doctor.
Another perk about having company health insurance
is that they offer free annual health checkups.
It's funny though, because health examinations
become a yearly talking point for many Japanese employees.
Employees ask each other if they've taken it yet, regardless,
you know, it's that time of the year, because you get spammed by HR
telling you to take your test.
So anyway, let me break it down.
So the basic annual health exam is called Kenko Shindan.
Again, it's free for most employees.
The exam checks things like your eyesight, hearing, blood, chest x-rays, urinalysis, etc.
Just to make sure your body is working as it should
and if anything is out of whack, you can catch it early on.
There's actually a more comprehensive exam that's called Ningen Dock.
It's free if you're on the company insurance and you're over 35 years old.
These additional tests include things like
respiratory function, stool tests, more detailed bloodwork, etc.
Then you can add extra examinations on top of these at your own cost.
In my case, I wanted to really check things out,
so I actually got CT scans for my head and chest.
This set me back $320.
But if you just took the standard examinations
and you're on the company insurance, then it's all free.
To me, that's pretty amazing. But what do you guys think?
How much would these examinations cost in your country?
Now, let me talk about something a little more serious.
I haven't mentioned this before,
but in 2012, I was in a serious snowboarding accident here in Japan.
I ended up with internal organ damage,
a collapsed lung, a broken hip, nine broken ribs. It caused an aortic aneurysm.
I ended up in the emergency room in Nagano [of all places?].
And I was in the ICU for about twenty days
Now how much do you guys think that hospital bill would come to?
Well, it came out cheaper than I'd ever expected.
It only cost $1,500 to save my life, which I'm super thankful for
and then after about twenty days at Nagano
I was transferred into a hospital in Tokyo.
I spent about another 40 days in&out of a Tokyo hospital,
and I had to have open-heart surgery for my aortic aneurysm.
At the end of the day, the open-heart surgery
and the 40-day stay in the hospital came out to be $4,800.
It felt quite expensive at the time, but compared to other parts of the world
and the quality of health care I received here in Japan, it was so worth it.
In fact, another feature of the Japanese health care system
is something called major medical expense supply,
which basically means that if your monthly medical bills
get to a certain threshold,
then the government will pay you back some of the money.
This pretty much ensures that no one goes bankrupt
if they get sick here in Japan, which like is another cool thing.
But, luckily, in my case, I never got to that point.
So, in my previous video, you probably already know
that Maiko and I recently got married.
I have American citizenship, so we've actually considered
moving back to the States, but one of the scary things for us
is the US healthcare, especially now that we're thinking about starting a family.
The thing is, I have a friend in the US that was recently hospitalized.
He wasn't feeling well, he got really sick and
had to spend seven days in the hospital so they could run tests
and so that he could recover.
The medical bill after the entire ordeal cost $70,000 for those seven days.
That's $10,000 per day. That's insane.
There's no way I'd be able to afford getting sick in the US, let alone my family.
Probably the reason why I never went to the doctor
when I was growing up, for a cold or even a stomachache,
it was just way too expensive.
And probably the reason why Maiko, although she was healthy growing up,
has so many memories of always visiting the doctor.
So let me know what you guys think of the medical cost in Japan,
what you think about the health care system here compared to your country.
And let me know if you prefer over your country.
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