Health insurance cards are going away for better or for worse
After December 2nd this year health insurance cards will no longer be issued in Japan (although current ones will remain valid until their expiration date or December 2025, whichever comes earlier).
At that point you have two options: register your health insurance details on My Number card (using the MyNa portal app, 7-11 bank ATM, card reader at hospital, or desk at city hall), or (only for people who do not have a My Number plastic card or have not registered it) a certificate of eligibility will be issued automatically.
I have a couple of reservations about this change, but I believe it is ultimately going to be a positive one.
The Benefits of the New System
The advantages of doing health care through My Number cards is that finally all patient records are going to be in one place and accessible to clinics and hospitals. Hopefully this will result in a lot fewer unnecessary tests and scans being done.
It also makes it easier to keep track of prescriptions and what medications patients are on. Right now you have to carry your paper 薬手帳 around, which may or may not be up to date, and hospitals will usually ask permission to photocopy it. The new system should mean they have an up to date record they can access in real time.
Finally the new system should make it easier to claim for medical expenses on your tax return, as the system can pull in all expenses for hospital visits and pharmacies (you would still need to keep track of health spending not down through the national health service).
The Drawbacks of the New System
There are concerns about the safety of your information. There have been a handful of well-publicised cases concerning errors in the administration of My Number cards. I am not sure how likely this is to happen though.
The main drawbacks from my point of view are twofold.
First, and less serious, is that every time I have gone to use my My Number card for health insurance purposes at a clinic or pharmacy, I have had to re-register it, giving permission to the clinic to use my personal information. This is kind of annoying.
I hope they will change this slightly so that once you register with a particular institution once, it will remember your permissions for at least a period of time.
The second, which is more serious, is something that I suspect the government will fix fairly quickly once health cards (and driving licences, zairyu cards, etc. are integrated into the My Number system), and that is how long it takes to reissue a card.
Up until now, getting a new My Number card has been a laborious process, requiring you to book an appointment and then wait around six weeks to get your new card.
It would be completely unacceptable to have to wait six weeks to get a new driving license if you lost it, or a new zairyu card, so I presume the renewal system will be streamlined soon. But as things stand it is not fit for purpose.
What do you think? Is the new health card system a good idea? Have you already registered your My Number card with your health insurance information?
I have registered and used it a couple of times. The hospital’s mynumber scanners aren’t multilingual, which may be a problem for some people.
I recently discovered another possible problem. The NFC chip on my iPhone SE has died, so I can no longer access my “my number” account on the smartphone app because you have to scan the card. Also, I can’t seem to access my account from my computer because it asks me to scan my card. I haven’t had the time to visit the city hall to troubleshoot the problem, and luckily, I haven’t needed to access my account for anything important, but this could be a problem if everything is on it and you need to make changes. I only tried to access my account because the app notified me that I had unread messages.
Looks like another Bungle and Boo boo’s consulting firm got hold of an idea and decided to try their hand at localizing it in Japan. This NEVER GOES WELL!!
My Number is a fiasco. At least if you can’t figure your drivers license out you risk being arrested if you are forced or choose to drive without it. If you are having a brain haemorage and the amublance is buzzing around town looking for a hospital that will take a gaijin then having this all sorted is probably a little more important.
Fingers crossed they think about folks who are not native Japanese speakers? I mean banks have not gotten there yet – Mizuho simply does not bother at any rate….so.
Not optimistic.
I guess you’re not going to like the fact that the Driver’s License is being merged into the My Number Card system too, effective March 25 next year.
And then zairyu cards too, right?