It has been revealed that there are no records of who decided to abolish health insurance cards and how． The details of the Prime Minister’s report and exchanges between Cabinet ministers remain shrouded in mystery．
0001@Old Man Friends Club ★.Sep. 25, 2024 (Wed) 10:46:05.52ID:ZYNNtJqa9
The Tokyo Shimbun’s request for disclosure of information and interviews with relevant parties revealed that the government has not kept any records that would explain how the decision to abolish the current health insurance cards was made. Despite this being a major policy shift that was essentially equivalent to making it mandatory to obtain My Number cards, the details of the discussions that took place within the government remain a black box. (My Number Insurance Card Reporting Team, Ebisu Fumina) ●A complete reversal from the “optional” system in just four months… The government announced its intention to abolish the current insurance cards on October 13, 2022. At a press conference, Digital Minister Taro Kono stated, “We aim to abolish the current health insurance cards in the fall of fiscal 2024.” The government later decided to abolish it in December 2024. Until then, the government had said it would “in principle abolish the plan,” but had also left room for people to choose their current health insurance cards by saying it “would not be mandatory.” In June of this year, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper asked the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Digital Agency to disclose documents that would show the policy-making process that led to the decision to “completely abolish the system.” ◆All the documents disclosed were already publicly released Two months later, the only documents disclosed by the two ministries and agencies were the “Basic Policy” that the government decided to abolish in principle in June 2022, the minutes and materials of the “Inter-Ministerial Liaison Conference on Promoting the Dissemination and Use of My Number Cards” held on September 29 and October 12, 2022, and the summary of the press conference by the relevant ministers who announced the abolition. Most of them have already been published on the website. Continue reading in the Tokyo Shimbun 2024/09/25 6:00.
>>1 I remember reading an article at the time about how Taro suddenly announced it to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare without any prior preparations, causing chaos.
>>1 In Japan, where the population is declining due to a declining birthrate and aging population, we need to reduce administrative costs through IT. My Number health insurance cards are essential for IT implementation, regardless of whether elderly people can use them, the high implementation costs, or the current usage rate. On the other hand, if even a small amount of paper insurance cards are retained, there will be no point in going digital and it will only be harmful.
>>9 That’s how we kept losing the Pacific War by obscuring responsibility. The causes and responsibilities of our mistakes must be clearly investigated and those responsible must be punished.
We are no longer a country governed by laws. The LDP has no intention of following the law and procedures. They are not fit to govern a democratic country.
>>26 For example, in the NTV Sexy Tanaka scandal, I called and emailed the PR department but got no response, and that was the end of my investigation. NTV, Shogakukan, the production company, the talent agency, the people in charge, and the executives are all probably in Tokyo…
The My Number system is not sophisticated enough to completely replace the functions of health insurance cards. If the My Number system is more convenient, the transition to the My Number system should occur naturally without the need to abolish health insurance cards. There is no need to forcibly abolish them.
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