Unpaid NHI when moving to a new city

This is a very sticky situation and difficult for me to explain, so I won’t go into too much detail.

A number of employees I work with, myself included, had our NHI bills skyrocket (10,000 to 40,000+) due to our yearly tax deduction paperwork being submitted incorrectly. Our company suggested two options.

1. Pay the NHI bills and submit the tax deduction paperwork properly next year.

2. Don’t pay NHI and thus cancel NHI. If we go to the hospital, we will have to pay full price.

A lot of employees have stopped paying NHI because their full price hospital bills are cheaper than the NHI bills. I am trying to keep up with the bills, but I am very behind. I'm moving to a new city soon to start a new job. Once I do that, I will be able to pay them off.

But I have questions regarding NHI and my move...

1. When I go to my current city hall to ask for a “moving out” certificate, will they ask about my unpaid NHI bills? Will they require that I pay them? I am behind on 4 of them and it would be impossible for me to pay all at once.

2. When I go to my new city hall to fill out paperwork, will they too ask about my unpaid NHI bills? Again, I can’t pay them in one lump sum.

3. Can you think of any other problems I'm unaware of?

They might ask about it, and you can explain. It is not like they can stop you moving (and de-registering in one spot and re-registering at another). Eventually the error will get corrected and you will get a refund (based on what you say).
My experience on this is limited to a change of address I did last year under the NHI scheme where I had two cities mailing me payment slips at the same time while the change-over occurred. I certainly was not asked about if my payments were up-to-date when I registered at my current location, and all of the adjustments were being done in the background anyway (I think I got three revisions my first year). Now I and my staff are covered by my company - because AFAIK it is a legal requirement and that is the advice from my lawyer and accountant.
As an aside, I am quite grateful for my insurance - it covered my 100k dental costs last year very effectively. And one of my staff has made good use of their insurance (a life threatening emergency last year that put them in an ICU for two weeks, and another major surgery this year). The last one would be around 5M yen so they are getting great value for money.

JapanCustomTours, I agree. Insurance is necessary. I had an accident last year and was thankful I had it.

Here is a little backstory...

My company said that for NHI to remain the same (10,000) I must fill out my company's yearly tax deduction form online. If I do that, it will stay the same because my income hasn't changed. I asked if I need to submit any paperwork to city hall myself and my company said no - they handle it completely... But then my NHI bills (as well as numerous other employees) went up to around 40,000. We asked our company and they were very vague. All they said was that the paperwork must have been submitted incorrectly by them and we must not have submitted any paperwork ourselves (even though they told us we don't have to). When asked if it can be fixed (or as you said, get a refund) they said no because it was our error - not city hall's error. We asked for more details that way we can express our concerns to city hall, but they gave no more details... So I'm not even sure what I would say.

When I de-register at my current city hall, if they ask about it and I explain, will they send the bills to my new address? Since I can't pay one lump sum?

sorry to hear your story ...
all you need to do is go to tax offfice in your area and file for your tax by yourself. or city office about Kakuteishinkō)(確定申告) 2018 Feb 16 -march 15 .
you can file it by yourself. also can file from 3 to 5year ago .

NHI : even if you cancel your NHI .the bills you are owning will still be coming . and after few years they will pick it from your bank account .

the company has no right to decide the fee.
generally speaking, 40000 yen is correct, if you have enough income.
http://www4.city.kanazawa.lg.jp/data/open/cnt/3/19416/6/meyasuhyo.pdf

the point you don't know is, if you have enough income (it means you work more than 30 hours per week), the company has to join you to their health and pension system. if they join you their system, they have to pay the half of the fee (you fee becomes a half.)
I think your company is cheating you.

whether the company joins you their health insurance or not, is the good barometer to find a good company.

Sounds fishy - but you do not need to rely on the company as you can get and straighten out the records directly with city hall. (and, no, they won't make you pay in a lump sum, but they will send the payment notices to your new residence)

Thank you all so much for your replies.

I only relied on my company because they said they would be responsible for everything. Now I know that wasn't true and I should have taken the initiative to do everything myself.

I feel very foolish and am slightly embarrassed.

Please tell me if I have the process correct.

First I should get a moving out certificate. Then I go to de-register NHI. I show them my moving out certificate, explain that I was unable to pay because of the high fees, but that they can send the bills to my new address. If possible, sort of the tax paperwork and get the bills reduced as well. I then go to my new city hall and re-register.

Is this correct?