News Japan phases out health insurance cards and shifts to My Number ID

Today, Japan began using My Number cards as the standard form of health insurance identification, bringing the long-planned shift into full effect. Officials acknowledged that the rollout still faced hurdles, particularly in getting more people to use the system. Although the old insurance cards technically expired the day before, people were being told they could continue presenting them at clinics and hospitals until the end of next March, so that no one would be caught out during the transition; payments for treatment would remain at the usual 10-30%.

For those who had not yet obtained a My Number card, insured treatment would still be available so long as the patient could present a certificate confirming their enrollment in a health insurance scheme. The health ministry said the new arrangement would make it easier for medical institutions to access a patient's records and prescription history, which it argued would be one of the system's practical benefits.

[...] a series of personal information leaks and registration errors since the introduction of the My Number ID system in 2016 have fueled public distrust, resulting in an adoption rate of less than 40%. The insurance cards belonging to around 78 million people enrolled in health insurance through their place of employment expired on Monday. These cards stopped being issued on 2 December last year but could still be used within a one-year grace period. Around 70% of the cards of those enrolled in the National Health Insurance program -- a system for the self-employed and unemployed -- expired at the end of July this year, with the remainder having expired by Monday.

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By the end of October, around 87.3 million people had linked their My Number cards to their health insurance, representing about 88% of all cardholders. Even so, officials noted that actual use of the cards in medical settings was much lower, at just 37.1%, and they admitted they did not yet know whether phasing out the old insurance cards would persuade more people to start using the new system.