NHI Update

I sat in the hot and sweaty city hall for half an hour waiting for my number to be called. Long story short: some percentage that it used to calculated your insurance premiums went up from 1.8% to 2.3% this year. Nothing else changed but that little uppage is the reason I'm now maybe 1,000$ a year instead of 150$. She calculated things for me and said there was no mistake. It's what I owe.

So I asked her if I could cancel it because I am going back to my country (eventually) and I'm going to start a new insurance and she told me, Alright, that's fine. When you come back to turn in your gaijin card, they'll send you over here to cancel your insurance. Alright, well, that didn't work. So I told her I already have a company I want to join now, so I don't need the other one and, like everyone said, there are all these stupid stipulations that prevent you from getting out of it. But, as if this was some kind of consolation, it's the same for Japanese and foreigners. Though I don't see why any Japanese folks would have a reason for leaving.

You can get out if you're leaving the country, or moving to another city (where I assume you would enroll again... I thought it was supposed to be 'national') or if you are getting enrolled in your company's health plan (but then only under certain conditions). If you don't want to pay that much (though it wasn't an issue before), or see a different/better plan on TV, you can't just opt out. What a crock. I'm trying to remember back in Canada if you have to be part of the provincial insurance. Maybe you do. But it's free (or cheap; never again will I complain about paying 54$/month to BC Medical) so who cares. The only issue BC Medical gave me when I left for Japan was that they said they never recieved notice of me telling them I was leaving and so I wanted to suspend coverage. They bugged my mom for 6 months of backpayment until she yelled at them directly about me having cancelled it in July.

The lady at city hall took a copy of my application form for InterGlobal, which they had never heard of, and they are going to check to see if whatever services the company offers allows me to be released from the NHI. They're checking it out and going to call me to let me know. I wonder if they copied my credit card information... I'm kind of uneasy about that because they didn't tell me they were even going to copy anything. :/ I figure if they don't call me back in 10 minutes (city hall closes at 5:15), I guess I have to wait until Monday for a verdict.