As health care spending in Japan continues to balloon, a large and growing proportion is spent on care for the elderly.  The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) is planning a new, separate national health insurance system for the elderly.   This system will redistribute the burden of insurance premiums to make the paying public, including workers, aware of rising costs, and to encourage the elderly to forego needless treatment.  The MHLW hopes to bring elderly care costs down from the currently projected 30 trillion yen in 2025 (about US$260 billion) to 25 trillion yen (about US$217 billion).  

Under the new system, which starts in 2008, most people´s premiums should drop at first before continuing to rise.  For workers in employer-assisted health insurance systems, for example, yearly premiums are projected to decrease by 10,000 yen (about US$85) for smaller enterprises, and by 2,000 yen (about US$20) for larger ones.  This is because the system would bring in new income by enrolling everyone over the age of 75, including about 2 million now covered as dependents of their adult children.  Substantial cuts in reimbursements for treatment are also planned. 

Under the new system, premiums from seniors will then rise to keep covering 10% or more of their rising treatment costs.  Also, premiums for all contributors will be divided into a regular "basic premium" and a "special premium" for elderly care costs, to let workers understand better how much elderly care costs are rising.