3. Premiums for long-term care insurance

• From the standpoint of having people bear the cost in response to their ability to pay, the insurance premium for elderly persons shall be a fixed amount set by each municipality according to their level of income. This will lighten the burden on people with low income, while high income persons bear expenses in response to their income.

  Level	Eligible Persons	Premium	(Ref.) Estimated percentage of eligible persons
  1	�E Public assistance recipients �E Municipal tax-exempted households and Old-Age Welfare Pension recipients	Basic amount x 0.5	Approx. 2%
  2	Municipal tax-exempted households	Basic amount x 0.75	Approx. 29%
  3	Municipal tax-exempted persons	Basic amount x 1	Approx. 43%
  4	Municipal tax payer (The insured person's total amount of income is less than 2,500,000 yen.)	Basic amount x 1.25	Approx. 16%
  5	Municipal tax payer (The insured person's total amount of income is 2,500,000 yen or more.)	Basic amount x 1.5	Approx. 10%

  

  *	The model pension recipient is an elderly married couple (They receive 240,000 yen per month; Husband 175,000 yen and wife 65,000 yen), and their household is exempted of municipal tax.
  *	Old-Age retirement pension recipients whose annual income is 2,660,000 yen or less, are exempted from municipal tax. Also, if the annual income is 4,330,000 yen or less, the total taxable income will be less than 2,500,000 yen.

  
  

• For public assistance recipients, the amount equivalent to the expense for the payment of insurance premium will be added on to their public assistance.
  
  
• For Level 2 to Level 5 insured persons who will become public assistance recipients if the insurance premium for their level is applied, lower level of insurance premiums will be applied to avoid them becoming public assistance recipients.

User's cost for low income persons

�@	Eligible persons	Details
High long-term care service cost	All service users	Set lower amount for low income persons (1) Public assistance recipients or old-age welfare pension recipients ��\15,000/month (2) Municipality tax-exempted households ��\24,600/month (3) Persons other than above ��\37,200/month
Standard charges for meal	Residents of institutions	Set lower amount for low income persons (1) Public assistance recipients or old-age welfare pension recipients �� \300/day (2) Municipal tax-exempted households ��\500/day (3) Persons other than above ��\780/day
Reduction measures for home help service as a temporary measurement	Persons who have used home helper service before the enforcement of law	For low income persons, the 10% charge will be reduced to 3% for 3 years. (Gradually increased to 10% after that.)
	Persons who have used home helper service as measures for disabled persons before the age of 65	For low income persons, the 10% charge will be reduced to 3% for 5 years.(Treatments after that will be examined during discussions on the overall system which includes discussions about young disabled persons.)
Reduction and exemption measures by the social welfare foundation	Users of the following services provided by social welfare foundations Home help service Day service Short stay Special nursing home for the elderly	For low income persons, the social welfare foundation will reduce and exempt users costs. * The rate of reduction and exemption is in principle, 50%. Up to 50% of the reduction and exemption total will be payed by public expenditure to the social welfare foundation. (* Facilities which took propagation and promotion measures)
Reduction measures at remote islands, etc.	Users of home helper service by social welfare foundations, etc. in regions such as remote islands, where long-term care fees are increased by 15%.	For low income persons, facilities concerned will reduce copayment. (from 10% to 9%) * Half of the reduction amount is payed by public expenditure to the facility which reduced copayment. * This measure is taken since copayment increase with extra charges for long-term care services.
Livelihood welfare fund loan	Persons who cannot pay usage fees temporary	The council of social welfare will loan up to 500,000 yen in principle. (Term of redemption is within 5 years)