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I was with Global over the season but have been tempting fate since March ie no insurance. My wife has found something from American Family which covers you for accidents and more at around \3000 a month-guess it'll do for boarding,and a 10th of the cost of National Health from what I hear. If you are youngish and healthy you only need insurance for when your totally forked up. I should get my act together and get covered.

Never ever go with the National health thing-if you're on it and want to get off or getting pressured to get on it, my advice is to get a lawyer to get that hungry dog off your back. Plenty of Japanese people don't pay because it is full of shit-they say you have to pay, but they say you have to do a lot of things when in actual fact nothing will happen if you don't eg not paying city tax or NHK license fees.

I won't pay for bullshit that is of no benefit to me until I'm tangibly threatened & that's when you get yourself a lawyer.

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Global does have a cheaper (as do most, I think) policy for the 'Lordy lordy, I just wrapped myself around a tree' scenario.

 

As for what is high income, in the case of whether private is worth it, practically every foreigner on a proper working visa is required to be earning one.

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Yes if you have a full time job and are sponsored by a compny they will require you to be covered by insurance. I was covered by travel insurance for 10 months and that was all the co. which gave me a 3 year visa wanted to know (they never asked for evidence). I just don't see how any foreigner who isn't married with kids would get more benefit from the National health. My wife avoids it because she realizes that by the time she retires there won't be any pensions as a kickback for her years of contribution.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by fukdane:
So what about non-high-income people then? I'm sure the majority of us fall into that category.


With the taxes being progressive, non-high-income people don't pay so much, so maybe you shouldn't worry about how much you have to pay. Instead maybe you could turn you attention to how your taxes are being used.

Remember, you can also claim back up to three years of pension contributions (subject to a withholding tax of 20%) if you go back to your home country.

In case you're interested, five-six years ago I was told that the city-hall health plan would cost me nearly 40,000 a month. My income at the time was 6 mill a year. It worked out at 450,000 a year for the privilege of still paying one third of any bill and full for routine stuff like having a kid or a comprehensive health checkup (ningen dokku) [aside: hardly an incentive for prevention vs. cure]. If it were just a universally applicable tax to raise money for universal health provision, I would be quite happy to pay it. However, it isn't, so I am not.
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Thanks for the help on this. I've asked the town office, and they're (perhaps ominously) - looking into it and will get back to us next week. I'll post the results here!

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My town office threatened to bring in the bad boys when I tried to get out of the health plan. I was working for them at the time, it caused a big fuss and there was no real alternative for me thn to pay.

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OK, the town office got back to me and asking me to still pay the health charges. They say that I must pay up, basically, even if I want to join an international policy.

 

Hmm, what to do? smile.gif

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I've just been reading through the other thread on buying/renting in Japan and some of the numbers been thrown about are just - mad.

 

I also know a few people in the city whos places also cost an obscene amount each month (of course they dont pay, the company does), and they're almost embarrassed by it.

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