Hi all. Corrector here.
I found some information about insurance on Gaijinpot that I thought I would share.
“Out of the chaos caused by the demise of Nova, caring companies and individuals are offering their services to all ex-Nova teachers.
InterGlobal Japan - Health Insurance
Notice to all ex-Nova teachers that were enrolled with the JMA insurance policies. Due to the JMA notice that all JMA policies have been CANCELED OCT. 31, 2007, InterGlobal will be offering a 10% DISCOUNT for ex-Nova teachers that require coverage. For information on the plans available visit www.globalhealth.jp.
If you were a JMA-InterGlobal member, please contact InterGlobal Japan.
(Phone: 0120-76-7703 - Email: igj@interglobal.co.jp)”
This “special deal” being offered is a blatant, predatory, profit driven attempt at distracting people from REAL health insurance that is provided by the Japanese government. Going from JMA(Japan Medical Assistance), a Nova-group company, to another for-profit insurance agency like InterGlobal is not in your best interests if you ONLY want to have ONE insurance policy.
There are a few the reasons why you should not put all of your health insurance needs in the hands of people that do not live in the same country as you, and I am going to highlight two of them here.
1) THE PROBLEM OF DISTANCE: InterGlobal, the insurance company pushed by Interac/”Maxceed” is based, as many of you know, in New Zealand. Now, this is not a knock against New Zealand (so please, GU members from New Zealand, dont send me hate mail or throw small, hairy fruit at me), but it is part of the danger of trusting Interac on the insurance issue. Having your insurance policy handled by a company outside of the borders of the country in which you reside, limits the amount of action you can take against said company if you are wronged. It also makes it very difficult to get the very service that you actually USE insurance for in the first place, reimbursement for money that you loose when you are sick or injured. Why anyone would want to pay for everything on their own, and then send mail a request to another country to try to get reimbursed os beyond me. I have never paid more than ¥1500 for a trip to the doctor on the government provided program, even when I had an x-rays taken of my chest. Throw that in along with the fact that your first year on Kokumin Kenkou Hoken (国民健康保険) only costs you about ¥1600 a month (because the amount you pay is based on the amount of money you made from the previous year) and you have to wonder why ANYONE would want to have a foreign health insurance plan as their primary provider. Many Japanese people have additional insurance, to cover the costs that the government programs do NOT cover, but no Japanese person in their right mind would go without the government program at all, partly because not signing up for it is against the law….
2) THE PROBLEM OF LEGALITY:
Interac has stated before that InterGlobal can be used in place of the government insurance.
This is untrue.
Don’t believe us? Call Interglobal and ask them. Their contact name can be found here:
http://www.globalhealth.jp/contact.php
Let us know what they say…
Ask them this: If I sign up for InterGlobal, does that mean I do NOT need to sign up for Shakai Hoken or Kokumin Kenkou Hoken?
Here is a link to information on the insurance run by the Japanese government, otherwise known as 社会保険 (Shakai Hoken) and 国民健康保険 (Kokumin Kenkou Hoken). Regardless of whether or not you sign up for InterGlobal, you still must sign up for one of the government programs, so why sign up for InterGlobal at all when most foreigners here only want to have one, good policy? Why put yourself through the hassle?
The reason I bring up another issue that primarily geared towards ex-NOVA teachers, is because Interac uses this very company. I am not sure why Interac pushes this insurance policy instead of doing a better job in explaining what the government programs to their teachers, but if I had three guesses, I would guess
1) ¥¥¥¥
2) ¥¥¥¥¥
and
3) ¥¥¥¥¥¥
Most of the reason teachers get shortchanged in this country, is because the “middle man” dispatch company needs money, so that would have to be my first, somewhat educated, guess.
Why else would Interac push InterGlobal on its teachers instead of EVEN the lesser of the two government plans, 国民健康保険 (Kokumin Kenkou Hoken) when
A) it only costs ¥1600 a month for the first year
B) you don’t have to pay everything up front and get reimbursed later by sending claims overseas
C) it covers you everywhere in Japan, the coverage is quite extensive, and your membership card can even count as an identification of sorts at certain times (like if you need more than one form of ID to get some kind of service)?
For those of you that are on InterGlobal insurance, we are conducting a survey and would like you to give us as much insight as possible as to what this company is like. Good or bad, send us an email to interac at generalunion dot org and describe your experiences. Have you had difficulty making claims, or was it smooth and painless? Have you had trouble getting information in general when you had questions, or could you make contact with customer service representatives very easily? Please give us as much information as you can….
And if you aren’t on one of the government programs, go get signed up as soon as possible.
More on this, coming up soon.
Solidarity.
The Corrector