Health Care and Residence Filing in Osaka

Residence Registration

We have been living for about a month in our new place in Osaka and we live inside the Fukushima Ward so we went to register ourselves at the ward office. It’s a bit like going to the DMV, where you grab a number, fill out some forms and do some waiting. The reason for the registration is for tax, pension and most importantly health insurance purposes. As many countries, Japan has public health insurance available to everyone, and supplementary private insurance (which is optional).

The process is a bit more painful than it should be. We spent about an hour waiting the first day, finally submitted our forms to the nice lady and she updated our ‘My Number Card’ (equivalent to an ID Card and Social Security Number) and my Residence Card. Since our daughter is elementary school aged, they auto registered us for the local school too, although she is already attending a private international school.

Then they told us they will send us a notice in the (snail) mail in a couple days, and that we needed to come back with that letter and finish getting our health insurance cards. Ugh, so that meant another trip to the ward office and more waiting and paperwork. We also had to setup direct pay to cover the insurance premiums and such on the second visit. Luckily people don’t move that often, but some day they should just move all this onto something called the ‘interwebs’?

Well, at least the annoying parts were over, but now on to the good! The premiums we pay for the family are about 5000 yen ($35 USD) per month so far more cheaper than back in the states. The premiums would be higher if we had jobs/income here, but still a fraction of the costs in the US. This covers 70% of all health care costs, and we are responsible for the rest. This includes prescriptions and dental care too. Some people buy additional insurance for the remaining costs, I believe companies may also offer that as a benefit too.

M Sprains an Ankle:(

M slipped while playing at school and twisted her ankle. It was a bit swollen, so out of an abundance of caution, we decided to find a doctor to have her checked out. The timing of M’s sprain was a bit unfortunate, we were still waiting to get our insurance cards after our first visit to ward office, so it added a little complication when we went to the clinic. Luckily, there is an orthopedic clinic nearby and they took walk (limp) in patients. We only waited about 20 minutes before M had some Xrays and the doctor took a quick look and gave her a wrap for her ankle. It turned out to be no big deal, and she was mostly back to normal after about 3 days. Whew! Since our insurance cards hadn’t come yet, they asked us to pay the full cost up front and would reimburse us when we got our cards. We didn’t really know what to expect for the bill, but they rang it up and it cost a total of about 15,000 yen ($120 USD). Wow, I had to ask again if that included the Xrays.

The next shocker was when we got our insurance cards and went to get reimbursed at the clinic. They basically gave all our money back and charged us only 500yen ($3 USD) for the visit. In Osaka city, children (elementary school age) get all their medical needs taken care of for only 500yen per visit, and a max of 1000yen for multiple visits in a month. Prescriptions are free. That’s pretty amazing, and last I checked the tax rates in Japan were comparable to the US. Other cities in Japan have different rules/benefits, but the child medical visits were totally free in Mie, so take that Osaka!

On a similar vein, day-care/preschool is heavily subsidized and free in certain income brackets. So cost of living in Japan for families is quite good compared to back home. The government is doing all it can to incentivize having babies, trying to reverse the low birth rates. Maybe they can make more land next. Just goes to show though, the USA really has to get it’s act together regarding health insurance.

Fitness Club

While we’re on the topic of health, we joined a gym in West Umeda to give us a fighting chance to not put on extra pounds while we graze on all the amazing local foods. We wanted a place with a pool and a japanese style big bath, which limited our choices to about 2 in walking distance. Normally I prefer to cycle outside, but living in the middle of a city limits any good road biking and the ‘seasonal’ weather also makes that not possible for good parts of the year. Still, it’s on the back of my mind to pick up a bike sometime, and maybe go explore what can be ridden if I head towards the hills. Anyhow, back to the gym, we are making it our routine to drop off M at the bus stop for school, then do our workout and swim sometimes in the 25m indoor pool. The timing is pretty nice, the gym is pretty empty at 9am with just some older retirees hanging out.

Some interesting things about the gym:

• Since you don’t normally wear shoes indoors, we had to get a pair of new shoes for the gym which we only wear while working out indoors. At least the place stays pretty clean.
• They do have group workout sessions, but no spin classes. I guess that has not caught on here, even though cycling is pretty popular these days. My guess, there isn’t a lot of space to store spin cycle machines in a typical gym!
• The bath is just like an onsen (hot springs bath), so it’s like being on vacation if you’re into that kind of thing.
• Masks are required due to Corona still, except while running on the treadmill. I don’t get the logic of that, except they don’t want people getting heat stroke and passing out while running?! But doesn’t breathing heavy… like I said, it’s not that busy while we’re there.

Once we finish working out and getting clean, we get a nice selection of food choices in Umeda for lunch. It’s a hard decision, but we have been trying a new place every time. After all, we work out so we can eat whatever.