So the other day my wife

Maiko told me that she had to go to the doctor because she had a cold I asked her didn't you just go like a

few days ago

He said yeah, but that was for a skin rash and then I asked didn't he go a week before that?

And she said yeah, but that's different that was for a stomachache for me. Someone that grew up in the States

That's kind of a lot of doctor visits

I might go for a severe skin rash but not for a cold or a stomachache which got me thinking about

Japanese healthcare in general and why people in Japan go to the doctor so much

Compared to other countries like the US I mean, how is it in your country?

Does everyone go to the doctor for every little minor ailment and with the reasoning behind it?

anyway, let me explain the basic Japanese healthcare system for

Those of you who don't know Japan was ranked 11th out of 195 countries in Haq rankings

The Japanese healthcare system is considered universal because it's supposed to cover everyone in Japan

So anyone living in the country even a foreigner like myself have to pay into the system

So insurance covers 70 to 90 percent of all necessary doctor visits and one of the things I appreciate

About the Japan healthcare system is you don't have to pay the full amount of your medical bill up front and then later fill out

Some paperwork to claim a refund perfect for someone like me who hates paperwork

So all you need to do when you arrive at the hospital clinic is show your health care card actually

I have one in my pocket right now

Actually, I don't have it but today right here it is

It has all my information so I can't actually show you what's inside

But I pretty much carry around with me everywhere

Just in case you never know and so it's nice at the end of your visit

The hospital will calculate how much you need to pay and you're good to go. And to be honest. It's surprisingly cheap

I'll get into the actual cost in a few moments

So again people only pay about 30% of the total hospital bill and sometimes it can be reduced down to 10%

Depending on other reasons and your monthly health insurance varies

depending on your age

income type of work and

Where you live and there are three main health care systems in Japan one per company employs two for civil servants teachers and public workers

And the third insurance for everyone else. They all have pretty much the same coverage

But if you're an employee the company has to pay half of your health insurance, which is awesome for most Japanese people

So for example, let's do this in u.s. Dollars

So it's easier to reference if you're under thirty nine years old and you work a regular job in Tokyo and you make twenty four

Hundred dollars a month you only pay one hundred and twenty dollars for your insurance

Now if you make five thousand dollars you pay about three hundred and fifty dollars

And so you're making the big bucks into making ten thousand dollars a month

You're paying about five hundred and twenty five dollars in insurance. I don't know. I think that's pretty reasonable

What do you guys think?

and how much do you guys pay for your monthly health care insurance and now go to the point and

Michael goes to the hospital. So many times here are some regular doctor visits that I've had

So my knee was bothering me after playing some basketball

I went to the doctor for an examination and got three x-rays

The total fee was eleven dollars and the three x-rays only cost two dollars and fifty cents another time

I had a doctor

Consultation to pick up some medication and only cut those three dollars and fifty cents to consult with the doctor

Can you guys see now why Michael goes to the doctor so much?

It's just so cheap relatively speaking knowing those numbers

It makes so much more sense to me why Japanese people?

Go to the hospital and go to the clinic for every little sickness or illness or whatever happens. They just go see the doctor

another perk about having company health insurance is that they offer free annual health checkups

It's funny though

because health examinations become a yearly talking point for many Japanese employees employees ask each other and if they've taken it yet regardless

You know, it's that time of the year because you get spammed by HR telling you to take your test

So anyway, let me break it down. So the basic annual health exam is called the cane coaching done again

It's free for most employees the exam checks things like your eyesight hearing blood chest x-rays urinalysis, etc

Just to make sure your body is working as it should and if anything is out of whack

You can catch it early on there's actually a more comprehensive exam that's called the mean game doc

It's free

if you're on the company insurance and you're over 35 years old these additional tests include things like

Respiratory function stool tests more detailed bloodwork, etc

Then you can add extra examinations on top of these at your own in my case. I wanted how to really check things out

So I actually got CT scans for my head and chest this set me back three hundred and twenty dollars

But if you just took the standard examinations and you're on the company insurance, then it's all free to me. That's pretty amazing

But what do you guys think? How much would these examinations constant your country? All right

Now, let me talk about something a little more serious

I haven't mentioned this before but in 2012, I was in the city of snowboarding accident here in Japan

I ended up with internal organ damage a collapsed lung a broken hip nine broken ribs. It caused an aortic aneurysm

I ended up in the emergency room in

Nagano of all places and I was in the ICU for about twenty days

Now how much do you guys think that hospital bill would come to well

It came out cheaper than I'd ever expected. It only costs

$1,500 to save my life, which I'm super thankful for and then after about twenty days at Nagano

I was transferred into a hospital in Tokyo

I spent about another 40 days in an atom to tokyo hospital and I had to have open-heart

Surgery for my aortic aneurysm heads up end of the day the open-heart surgery and the 40-day stay in the hospital

and came out to be

$4,800 it felt quite expensive at the time but compared to other parts of the world and the quality of health care

I received here in Japan. It was so worth it

in fact

Another feature of the Japanese health care system is something called major medical

expense supply which basically means that if your monthly medical bills get to a certain threshold then the

Government will pay you back some of the money this pretty much ensures that no one goes bankrupt

If they get sick here in Japan, which like is another cool thing, but luckily in my case

I never got to that point. So in my previous video you probably already know Michael and I recently got married

I have American citizenship. So we've actually considered moving back to the States but one of the scary things for us is the u.s

Health care, especially now that we're thinking about starting a family the thing is I have a friend in the u.s

That was recently hospitalized

He wasn't feeling well, I got really sad and had to spend seven days in the hospital so they could run tests

And so that he could recover the medical bill after the entire ordeal cost seventy thousand dollars for those seven days

That's ten thousand dollars per day. That's insane. There's no way I'd be able to afford getting sick in the u.s

let alone my family probably the reason why I never went to the

Doctor when I was growing up for a cold or even a stomachache

it was just way too expensive and probably the reason why my Co although she was healthy growing up has so many memories of

always visiting the doctor

so anyway

Let me know what you guys think of the medical cost in Japan what you think about the health care system?

Here compared to your country and let me know if you prefer over in your country and like always if you like this video help

Me out and hit that like button if you want to see what I'm doing on a daily basis check out my Instagram account

If you like these types of videos about Japan

Or you want to see more of my guides hit that subscribe button and the Bell button and I'll catch you guys in the next

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