The Japan Times
February 12, 2004
Visaless foreigners to be denied national health cover
By Tomoko Otake
After the Supreme Court ruled last month that it is illegal to bar Visaless foreigners from the national health insurance scheme, the health ministry is mulling the creation of an ordinance to do just that.
The top court for the first time recognized that foreigners who Overstay their visas have the right to join the national health insurance plan as long as they are likely to maintain a stable living, have registered with the municipalities where they reside and have applied for special residency permits.
The Supreme Court ruled as illegal a 1992 notice issued by the head of The health ministry’s national insurance plan section that excluded Foreigners with visas valid for less than a year from the nation health insurance plan.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040212b3.htm
Comment: A debate also rages on in the United States as to whether undocumented residents should be covered. But there is a major, glaring difference between the United States and Japan in the fundamentals of this debate. Japan actually has a national health insurance system which theoretically could cover visaless foreigners; we don’t.