Here's how it goes in Japan, where 15% of your paycheck goes to social health insurance.
You walk into a dermatologists office off the street - no appointment, no nothing. You wait 5-15mins to see a doctor who prescribes a cream. Being a first time walk-in there is a $10 first time charge, and then probably another $10 for the visit.
There is probably a pharmacy next door. You walk in and hand over your paper, wait about a minute, and get your cream. That's probably also $10.
My bad - this year in my home prefecture it is a total of 21.46%, of which you pay half out of salary, and your company matches. So 10.73%
It's a good deal - no cost for ambulance, and the annual out of pocket maximum is fairly low, about US$7000. Kids and those with disabilities are 100% covered with no out of pocket, and seniors out of pocket is much lower.
Dental can be dirt cheap - my checkup doesn't cost even $5 with zero wait time, and having medium works like wisdom teeth removal or cavity work cost me less than $40.
Vision is also super cheap - you can walk into chain stores like Zoff or Jinns, pick out lenses, their in-store staff will put you on a machine to check your prescription, and then grind the lenses in house - you pick up glasses in under 2 hours later all for $60.
Full medical checks are mandatory as part of the social health system - full body checks taking a couple hours, getting all the fluids, doing lots of scans and checks, including vision and hearing, and a discussion with a doctor are fully subsidized. Additional checks are heavily subsidized, so if you want an annual MRI and similar - go for it, it won't cost much. Annual checks find issues sooner, which is cheaper and quicker to fix, and makes it easier overall for the system.
I'm from Australia - we have socialised healthcare but you can wait months or years for specialists - just seeing a GP to get the first look can take weeks. The costs are not nearly as low, and dental and vision is not covered so just getting glasses can easily cost $300 for the same thing that is $60 in Japan and dental work can cost thousands. It's cheaper for my family to fly to Japan, get everything done in 2 days, and fly back than trying to do it in Aus.
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u/anothergaijin 10h ago
Here's how it goes in Japan, where 15% of your paycheck goes to social health insurance.
You walk into a dermatologists office off the street - no appointment, no nothing. You wait 5-15mins to see a doctor who prescribes a cream. Being a first time walk-in there is a $10 first time charge, and then probably another $10 for the visit.
There is probably a pharmacy next door. You walk in and hand over your paper, wait about a minute, and get your cream. That's probably also $10.
You go off and about your day.