Job Discussion Forums

[Hoser]

Just a quick word of advice if you are planning on picking up any insurance. I have been thinking about getting the standard 40,000 yen per year insurance that you see advertised in the papers. Fortunately my roommate went to the city office and saved me from wasting my money. Last year he had the Vida Vida insurance plan and he went to the city office to apply for the Japanese national health insurance. You usually have to pay the for the Japanese insurance from whenever your last insurance ended. Well it turns out that the Japanese insurance system does not accept those kinds of insurance plans as suitable insurance which means that he would have to make back payments of at least a year and a half before he could get onto the national system. If you're only planning on sticking around for a year or two then it might make sense to just go with the cheap stuff but if you've got some series attachments to the country (ie in a serious 2 and a half year relationship like myself) then it would be worth your while to simply swallow that bitter pill and switch over as soon as possible.

[fluffyhamster]

I don't think there are many people who'd've ever imagined that non-payments into the Japanese system would count as payments into it LOL (and would therefore have not gone into their local city hall waving their Hasta La Vista policy or whatever); and it is also pretty clear that Japanese NHI will provide better coverage for serious illnesses (Viva Vida only covers the first 2 million or so of treatment costs, which isn't that much really. I recall reading a horror story about some teacher who got really ill in her first year and found out to her horror that the cheapo scheme she'd been fobbed off with by her employer just wasn't going to cut it).

[southofreality]

From the Yokohama Living Guide,

[Hoser]

Well according to my roommate, he only had to pay from when his Nova insurance ended which was back in December or November. So the Nova insurance is apparently good enough but the other kinds of insurance aren't.

Ok I have a question. My first year in Japan I didn't use Nova's insurance program but I had my own traveler's insurance from back home. Then after one year I got the travelers insurance. Will I be required to make back payments for that year do you think? I noticed on your link it says, that any person who's period of stay is longer than one year is required to enroll. Does that mean that I don't need to pay back payments for that first year do you think? Obviously I've been here longer than one year but my first visa was only a one year visa so technically I wasn't qualified to stay for longer than a year.

[fluffyhamster]

I don't know why your roommate's NOVA insurance was acceptable and the Viva Vida not (for the purposes of filling gaps in required backpayments related to time spent in Japan), as I suspect they offered similar cover (and I got the feeling that Viva Vida was better on paper at least), but I can't see how having any type of insurance would be a 'waste of money', and even if you do end up having to pay "again" for that first year, it will not be very expensive (for that first year at least) if it's 'kokumin kenko hoken' that you are now finally enrolling in.
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=53896&highlight=kokumin

[Hoser]

Well I'm finally covered on health insurance!! 5 months of backpayments starting from November 1st. Gonna cost be about 73,000 yen. Looks like health insurance is going to cost about 15,000 per month or so.

[Inflames]

[Hoser]

Well I only had to pay from Nov 1st as well. Granted I am in the same situation as he was, but it seems as if Nova's Interglobal insurance policy was perfectly suitable for the people at the city office.