One Unchangeable Reason I Live in Japan
My Surgery Experience
Affordable Healthcare
Japan’s healthcare system has its issues, but, with two national programs, not tied to your employment and scaled according to your income, with streamlined care coverage, it is an incredible improvement from the US job-based healthcare system, with no national options, filled with opaque rapacious pricing, inconsistent coverage, high premiums, and excessive complexity etc.
Three weeks ago, I broke both my tibia and fibula just above the ankle — the worst injury of my life. Surgery was necessary to ensure proper rehabilitation and recovery. This was my third broken bone injury but my second as an adult where I had to take economic and personal responsibility for my own care.
My US healthcare Experience
While I lived in the US and taught in a high school, I received one of the best healthcare policies among my friends, who actually have healthcare. Most of my friends do not have healthcare by the way. They are not alone.
There are roughly 50 million Americans without coverage and many more with minimal, insufficient coverage in the US. Even with this healthcare plan, coverage was inconsistent.
When I could receive care often the coverage was piecemeal leaving me to pay out of pocket inconsistent sums, mostly medium to large ones. Furthermore, not all hospitals or clinics even accepted my particular plan — called my “system” in the US.
When I broke my collarbone, if I got surgery so that it would heal back into its normal shape, it would have cost me $7000. The bill for the ER was $1400. As a graduate student, I did not have that money. After having to depend on my parents for some other appointment visits, I just let it heal on its own. While this choice has left my bone malformed, fortunately, it has not had any effect on the strength of my shoulder or muscles around it.
In conclusion, the stress and distress of both of these experiences remains burned into my memory. Throughout the experience, the constant compromises between the necessary care for recovery and affordability left me feeling that the end result would never be optimal.
The Japanese healthcare system
My recent experience of surgery in Japan, while not perfect with the classic microaggressions that any immigrant to Japan experiences daily and terribly ineffectual painkillers, was beyond a doubt an experience that filled me with gratitude.
Surgery, two nights in the hospital, outpatient care, and medication came to only roughly $600 out of pocket upon leaving the hospital. By the way, I have a healthcare plan through my union as a civil servant of Gifu.
Concerning my care, I am receiving informative and thoughtful rehabilitation care weekly along with X-rays and consultations on how the bones are rebuilding. These appointments leave me feeling hopeful and dedicated to recovering 100% mobility.
I cannot describe how completely different this feels emotionally. There is no compounded stress of recovery and economic concerns. I am not worried about whether I will recover. I am certain I will recover. I am not suddenly mounted with massive debt either.
Furthermore, my job has helped me figure out a comfortable hybrid work schedule and advocated for me by seeking to minimize any loss of pay or overuse of paid time off.
My fellow American friend last year broke her ankle and had to have surgery as well. She as well experienced the excruciating pain that left her screaming for stronger painkillers but could not express her pain beyond the repetition of 痛い痛い itai itai. This experience left her traumatized because she felt that her pain was being invalidated or neglected at least or being entirely callously ignored at worst.
I am a fluent speaker of Japanese yet I had a similar experience. I was able to thoroughly explain my pain and demand better painkillers. Nonetheless I did not get better painkillers. I think that I was able to convince them to increase the dosage a bit because I am a much bigger human at 175 kilos and 188 cm. tall.
However, I did not have the same emotional experience as her. I realized through being able to communicate that it was not necessarily that I was being ignored but that Japan’s painkillers are not as powerful as the US. I realized that they were giving me the strongest they had available to them.
I will be researching this and writing another article about why this difference exists in more detail. For now, I will end this article here.
Remember your experiences are valid but limited. We are only individuals and sometimes we don’t have all the information. Therefore, I hope that we will share our experiences with immigrating to Japan for the purpose of healing and building understanding.
