With healthcare legislation front and center in the U.S. and many JETs set to leave the womb of JET life, not to mention the tough job market and high unemployment rate, I thought this might be a good time to ask the JET and JET alum community (and not just the U.S.):
How are you feeling about health insurance and healthcare these days?
Do you have it?
Are you worried about it?
What are your options?
What challenges or problems have you faced or do you expect to face?
Post your comments here for the benefit of the JET alumni and Friend of JET community.
Yoroshiku.
5 comments so far...
My life after JET was (and still is) turbulent. The one thing I did have was health care- I am self-insured so no matter what jobs get cut or if I get laid off or what have you, I still have insurance. And frankly, the (2) jobs I have right now- the insurance costs more than the pay check I get each week, so I opted not to have it. I have BCBS. I had it before I went on JET and I still have it today. It’s a little pricey but worth it.
I’m still looking for a “real” job- and that’s the biggest challenge I have right now.
I just worry that if I were to get pregnant in Japan, I wouldn’t be able to come home to the U.S. because it would become a “pre-existing condition” that wouldn’t be paid for.
i lived in america for six months after jet and honselty the best thing i could figure out was to registar as a student at a state univ. and purchase health insurance through the school. it’s not amazing insurance, but they didn’t have a preexisting condition clause.
one thing that you shouldn’t forget though is that you were never uninsured! even though you had two kinds of insurance in japan and none in america, that should still count as coverage.
I do not have insurance yet because I am unemployed. With any luck, I will soon become employed. I am not too worried about it now as I have no pre-existing conditions and do not take regular medication. I am a lucky S.O.B. I tried looking into COBRA after leaving my previous job and said forget it! The price was outrageous! Definitely not an option for a healthy single person with no regular income. I’d rather pay once out of pocket until I get regular insurance than invest impossible amounts of money into COBRA.
After JET, I got a job very quickly and got insured. But to be honest, I took it for granted. I do not see the doctor frequently, especially here in the States where you do not even need a doctor’s note to receive sick leave. I recently visited a doctor when I was starting my graduate course and got a note to prove my integrity. However, it wasn’t even looked at. In Japan that wouldn’t have been the case…
I only saw a doctor twice my whole 3 years in Japan and, though my conditions were for 2 different things, I received the exact same medication and treatment. They told me “kaze”. I think they were lying. ^^
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