I’m supposed to be getting a tonsillectomy next month but I can’t make heads or tails of how much I’m going to be paying. I’m using company health insurance to pay for 70% but I’ve also heard that there’s a limit to how much you pay in medical costs depending on your income. Does that limit also include the costs of the hospital stay?
I’m in Hokkaido if that makes a difference. And if anyone has had a tonsillectomy here, any information would be greatly appreciated
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Yes there is a limit. Since I don’t know where you live I pulled up the one for Sapporo [here](https://www.city.sapporo.jp/hoken-iryo/kokuho/kogaku.html).
Yes, the monthly limit does include your hospital stay and surgery. However, different types of rooms have different costs. If you end up in a room that is not a free one, you’ll have to pay that separately. You can request the free room (or a private one) but based on availability you might have to pay the extra costs. Food is also not covered. If you hit your limit 3 months in a year further measures will kick in.
How long will you be staying in hospital? I don’t know about company health insurance. But for government healthcare insurance, you are covered for shared room too. Talk to your company HR or company health insurance administrator to get info about coverage and your portion.
From my experience with major surgery, 6 month pre surgery treatment, and subsequent 6 weeks hospital stay in Sapporo (government health insurance), the hospital office advised me to go to ward office that issued a blue card with maximum amount listed that I was responsible for, every month. I gave that card to hospital administration and i didn’t had to pay anything above the amount listed on that card.
They still do tonsillectomies here? I thought that it was better to keep them because they are one big lymph-node that drains your body of bad stuff. They’ve opted for a course of antibiotics to preserve them in other places of the world.
I don’t know if they follow the same protocol as elsewhere, but if you’re getting yours removed, it must have gotten infected several times over if that was the choice they went with. My cousin had a tonsillectomy done because it repeatedly got infected.
I had a tonsillectomy about 4 years ago in Tokyo. They kept me a week in the hospital (super boring, I recommend bringing a wifi hotspot)
It cost me about 9万 (90,000yen) using my health insurance I have through work.
Not sure how much it’s changed since then, but expect around there probably. That was the cheapest room (shared 4 person)
So, lucky you are getting to eat lots of ice cream, are you?
Most has already been answered. A few things, you’ll have to pay fully out of pocket. Your food (you may want to ask if there are choices, like bread instead of rice and yoghurt instead o milk/juice for breakfast); then the upgrade, if you choose to have a private room, rental yukatas, if you need them (I always tried to change into my normal clothes ASAP).
You may also want to temporarily upgrade your phone plan to carry more data, if you’re like me and prefer YouTube to Japanese TV, and hang out all day long on the internet. At least in my neck of the woods, hospitals don’t offer Wi-Fi.
All in all, it’s likely going to end up cheaper than you think, so don’t worry too much about it.
Get well and all the best!