Job Discussion Forums

[fox1]

I have been here for 1.5yrs on a Working Hol. Visa, which is about to run out.

I've been on travel insurance basically the whole time.

Now that I'm changing to full-time work visa from January, what health insurance must I have?

Thanks.

[Venti]

If your company doesn't provide Shakai Hoken (Social Health Insurance), you must enroll in Kokumin Kenko Hoken (National Health Insurance) if you continue to live in Japan after one year. It's the law. You could probably get away with not having it, but if it catches up with you, you may have to make back-payments from the time you were originally supposed to enroll.

[fox1]

Thanks for the info. I'm with Nova. Anyone know any particulars related to Nova, regarding this?

Which is better/cheaper: Shakai Hoken or National Health Insurance?

Thank you.

[Venti]

fox,

I'm not sure about NOVA and Shakai Hoken, but usually if a company provides Shakai Hoken, it's done automatically. AEON is now enrolling all new teachers in Shakai Hoken whether they like it or not. The salary for continuing teachers has been increased almost enough to offset the monthly premium (about ￥30000). There's a pension component to this and up to three years of the pension portion of payments can be refunded to you after you quit.
If NOVA doesn't offer Shakai Hoken, you have to get Kokumin Kenko Hoken after 1 continuous year of living in Japan. If NOVA doesn't increase your salary to help cover the Shakai Hoken payment (assuming you can be enrolled in it with NOVA), you'll pay about ￥30000 per month for it, as I said. Kokumin Kenko will probably run you about ￥15000 per month.
You may find the people at NOVA unwilling to give you much information on health insurance. They may even tell you (possibly illegally) that the NOVA insurance is just fine for your entire stay with NOVA in Japan, no matter how long the term. They may not even be clear on the law, themselves. I doubt it, but who knows?

[yamanote senbei]

If you're full time, your employer must enroll you in Shakai Hoken, which includes Employee's Health Insurance. It's cheaper and has more benefits than the National Health Insurance that part timers must enroll themselves in.

http://nambufwc.org/issues/shakai-hoken/

[sallycat]

hmmm. are you really full-time? or are you on the 39 lesson contract? unless things have changed since i left, nova has (sneakily) arranged things so that its "full-timers" don't work quite enough hours to have to enroll in shakai hoken.

[fox1]

wow, that's really interesting. If so, wow, does that mean I can just continue on (cheap) travel insurance for ....my eternity in Japan? (and I can keep saving with barely any tax! )

[Gordon]

[yamanote senbei]

[womblingfree]

[Chris21]

Yamanote is right, you should have been enrolled after arriving, but it's not something that can be enforced very well. I've known a number of people who haven't enrolled and just continued on their private travel insurance (i.e. Global is a popular one... I think they're based in New Zealand - actually, they merged a few years ago so their name is, Global-something, I think). Anyway, while private travel insurance can end up costing 10,000 per quarter (3,333 per month), National Health insurance can be quite expensive (usually in the neighborhood of 30,000 if you are working full-time). National health insurance is based on your previous year's salary (perhaps this is what Venti was getting at?).

If you can get your company to pay for your National Health insurance, I think this is a better option. If you have to pay for it yourself (without any bump in salary), it's probably better to stick with private travel insurance... just be careful. If you have any pre-existing health conditions, check with a rep to see if they will be covered in case of hospitalization. It would be awful if you got sick and found out that your private travel insurance didn't cover you.

A couple of drawbacks to getting private travel insurance. If you get sick, you'll have to front all of your medical costs and will get reimbursed later... which can be pricey if something bad happens (so it would be wise to keep a chunk of cash in the bank if you can). An extended stay in a hoospital (i.e. a month) could cost upwards of 1,000,000 yen. Also, if you don't enroll in the National Health plan, you cannot join it in the future unless you make all the back-payments (which would be basically impossible - and certainly not worth it). I'd bet with Nova you are officially "semi-full time", allowing them to avoid including you in the National Health plan, which means you should save some money in case of a health emergency.

One way to avoid having to make back payments for joining the National Health plan, is to switch jobs. I was in your situation a few years back... working at an eikaiwa that didn't include me in the National Health plan (so I had private travel insurance). When I switched to a legitamately full-time job (not semi-full), I was included in the National Health plan and didn't have to make any back payments.

Hope that helps.

[Chris21]

InterGlobal (International Schools plan)

http://www.interglobalpmi.com/index.php

[yamanote senbei]

[yamanote senbei]

[Chris21]

In my previous post, just replace all mention of "National Health Insurance" with "Employee Health Insurance"... I meant EHI (but was using the wrong term).

As for InterGlobal, I found them to be professional and reliable. It would be nice if all eikaiwa workers could get coverage under EHI, but this is obviously not the case. For those that can't get covered under EHI, I'd suggest something (like InterGlobal) is better than nothing.