Health insurance question

Hi there!

I'm having a problem with my health insurance. Would be really grateful if I could get an answer quickly!

So I arrived in Japan this April (student visa). I went to the city hall, got registered, got my insurance card, all went well. But I haven't received any payment invoice until now. My classmates did like 1 month ago. I didn't worry too much (big mistake) and thought I'll go ask at the city hall sometime during the term break. But as life is full of awesome stuff, I woke up with a teeth emergency. It seems like a root infection. I made an appointment tomorrow with a dentist since I'm not feeling well at all (high fever and feel like fainting). But I'm really worried I'm not going to be able to use the health insurance card.

Will it show up somewhere that I haven't paid yet? I'm not sure how the system works since I never went to the doctor here. And if I'm unable to use the insurance card, does anyone know how much is a medical examination without insurance?

Thank you in advance!

You do have your health insurance card with you, right? The paper, ID card sized one? THen you can use that at the dentist.

Even if you have the card but you didn`t pay it CAN be refused, but that is up to the insurance company.

Cris,

You might want to ask your school before you get your tooth done. Some schools, universities in particular, often have a system in which its students can get medical treatment for free. Maybe they can give you some advise on your insurance card too.

As for payment, it can be confusing at first (even for Japanese residents!), and if your friends live in a different city, the system can be different too. For example, at least in where I live which is Yokohama, they have this weird system in which you don't get billed for the 2 months up to the end of June, every year.

if you dont have card you will pay 100% . but keep all the receipt .

dont worry about it .. .. any time your card come .. just go back to the clinic and pharmacy shop with your receipts they will refund your 70% money .

chike20 is right, just go to the dentist, tell them how your insurance card hasn't arrived yet. You'll have to pay 100% for the cost, but if shouldn't cost you too much at a regular dentist. Maybe up to 10,000 at most? Dentists here are cheaper is what my American husband always says. Keep the receipt you get from the dentist. Once the insurance card arrives, bring the card and the receipt and tell them how you got the card after the payment.

Depends on the city, but the health insurance bill should come in July in most places. They calculate your insurance bill based on the amount of money you made the year before, in your case, none, but like Uco said, you should ask your school as well to see if they have any other kind of health insurance for students from abroad. Either way, go to the dentist and keep the receipt until the money thing is sorted out :) I hope you'll feel better soon :/

If you are a student, you must have Japan National Insurance (JNHI) Card from the city office.
You supposed to receive this JNHI Card when you register as a residence. You can even use the card just after you receive it.
Like arcia mentioned above, the city calculated your previous year’s income then decide how much you should pay this year, so JNHI holder (any nationality) will receive the bill sometime in later June or early July, depending on the city.

Also, you don’t pay the bill every month. They divide the bill into 8 times, starting from July and end in March.　
For your case, if you are new in Japan and no income year 2016 here, your bill (国保税 National Health Insurance Tax) will be around 14500-15000 yen a year.

So don’t worry about not paying insurance bill yet and make the dentist appointment now!
If you have card, you’ll pay 30% of the whole bill at the dentist. For the first visit you may want to bring 3000-5000 yen just in case.
I don’t think it will cost that much though.

Another thing you need to know at the dentist, some treatment won’t be covered by health insurance.
So make sure to ask if the treatment will be covered by the insurance（保険治療）or not（自費治療）
For example, usual treatment such as cavity should be covered, but if you want to get your teeth whitened, you need to pay 100%.

As long as you have the Health Insurance card and your I.D with you. You can avail the insurance, they will just verify it to the insurance company if you are already paid.

is better to go to the city office and negociate how much you can pay

Example when i entered japan i didnt know about it. my health insurance

was 25200 yen per a year but if negociate with them . like you can only pay

1000yen or 1500yen per month . they wil calculate it from that amount .

because you dont have salary . if not the staffs dont care.