Outside a handful of countries in Africa and the Middle East, the US is one of the few world nations without national health insurance. The Affordable Care Act helped cut the number of uninsured, but even that’s a recent development, relatively speaking. Japan, meanwhile, has national health insurance for all, and while it’s not free, it’s certainly better than nothing.
As an adult back in America, I didn’t have health insurance. First, I couldn’t afford it. Second, I really didn’t get sick or hurt that often. I so rarely went to the doctor that it just wasn’t a priority. When I finally went back to college, I found myself covered under their healthcare system — any procedure cost $15, and you didn’t need an appointment for Student Health. After moving to Japan, I was required to get national health insurance, but that was okay; the monthly premium wasn’t too high, and it was nice to know my doctor visits and prescriptions were 70% covered by the government.
After the first year, my monthly insurance premium basically tripled. The government knew how much money I made and factored my age into things, and suddenly I was paying a lot more. Within a couple years, I found myself going to the doctor far more often than I ever had, due to various maladies. While I wasn’t happy being sick, I was thankful I had the insurance to reduce the costs.
Finally, the government finally made my company start offering shakai hoken (also called Social Insurance), wherein they pay for half of my insurance premium and the other half is automatically deducted from my paycheck. That helped a little.
What I’m trying to say is that I’d miss having national/social insurance if I ever left Japan, but I sure wouldn’t miss the monthly premium.
One Man in Japan 