[My Work] The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is considering expanding the reduction measures for National Health Insurance premiums to include "children up to high school age" [HR Work / Social Insurance]

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has begun considering expanding the reduction measures currently applied uniformly to preschool children for National Health Insurance (NHI) premiums—which are joined by self-employed individuals and others—to include "children up to high school age," in order to reduce the health insurance premium burden on child-rearing households.

I read this news.

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The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare plans to submit the relevant bill to the next regular Diet session, aiming for implementation as early as April 2027.

According to a survey by the Ministry, as of the end of September 2023, there were approximately 500,000 National Health Insurance enrollees aged 6 and under, and approximately 1.3 million aged 7 to 18. The Ministry intends to expand this regardless of income to include those up to high school age, and it is expected that over 1 million people will be newly eligible.

That is what it says.

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This is a policy that will help every household.

Social insurance premiums can be broadly divided into two parts: the "pension portion," which includes the National Pension and Employees' Pension, and "health insurance premiums."

Furthermore, health insurance premiums can also be broadly divided into two types: "Kyokai Kenpo (for those employed by companies, such as salarymen)" and "National Health Insurance (for self-employed individuals)."

Since self-employed individuals, who are the main enrollees of National Health Insurance, work in various industries and have various business conditions, it is, in a sense, unavoidable that the National Health Insurance premium burden is greater than that of Kyokai Kenpo.

Otherwise, the system would not be sustainable.

Therefore, when I speak with many company presidents and they ask about the merits of incorporating, a point that often applies is the "insurance premiums related to dependents," which is also relevant to this news.

National Health Insurance premiums are determined by a combination of the "per-capita levy" charged according to the number of household enrollees and the "income levy" paid according to the enrollee's income; consequently, the more children there are, the heavier the per-capita levy burden becomes for each household.

Therefore, a system was started in April 2022 to cover half of the per-capita levy burden for preschool children with public funds, but the burden is still significant.

On the other hand, for Kyokai Kenpo, there is no need to pay insurance premiums for dependents.

Therefore, to give an easy-to-understand example,

Pattern 1: A family of four (a salaryman, a part-time worker working 10 days a month, and two children of student age or younger).

If they are enrolled as dependents of the salaryman, the insurance premium is borne only by the salaryman through Kyokai Kenpo.

Pattern 2: A family of four (a self-employed person, a part-time worker working 10 days a month, and two children of student age or younger).

Since all four family members are enrolled in National Health Insurance, each person bears an insurance premium.

As a result, the family in Pattern 2 ends up with a higher insurance premium burden.

And, just because the insurance premium is higher, it does not mean that they receive more generous support than in Pattern 1; the insurance coverage is almost the same.

*Naturally, there are detailed conditions, so there are families to which the above does not apply. Please understand this.

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Up until they finish school, children need to be covered for various illnesses, and although the burden related to school attendance has decreased due to recent government policies, money is required for various other things as well.

Regarding insurance premiums, this current matter will be a plus, but comprehensively, it is necessary to promote policies aimed at reducing the burden on child-rearing generations.

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