退職後の健康保険：１年間は任意継続、その後は国民健康保険に

６０歳で定年退職後、雇用延長で働き、６５歳まで勤め先の健康保険に加入した。
６５歳以降は無職になるので、健康保険をどうするかを考えないといけなくなる。

最大２年間の任意継続か、国民健康保険か、どちらかを選ぶことになる。なお、任意継続しても、２年間の途中で止めることができる。

任意継続の場合、人間ドックも無料で利用できるので、それを考慮して費用を計算してみた。なお、国民健康保険の費用は、自分が住んでいる市町村の提供するサイトで試算できる。

１年目は、任意継続費用　＜　国民健康保険費用　＋　人間ドック費用
であったので、任意継続を選んだ。

退職してから１年間、就職活動をしたが、短期間のアルバイトしかできなかった。２年目の費用を計算すると
国民健康保険費用　＋　人間ドック費用　＜　任意継続費用
だったので、健康保険組合に資格喪失申出書を送り、手続きをしてもらった。
ただ、人間ドックは数万円もかかる。内容は劣るが、今後は市が千円で提供する、特定健康検査のサービスを利用するつもりだ。

私と妻の二人分の健康保険料の月額推移は以下のとおりだった。
在職中　：１１千円
任意継続中　：２４千円
国民健康保険　：７千円

こうしてみると、任意継続の費用は結構高かった。

任意継続は、一年分を前払いすると少し割安なので、３月３１日までを任意継続期間としていた。４月１日以降、国民健康保険に切り替えるため、任意継続の資格喪失の書類を持って市役所に行った。
４月の初めだったので、市役所の窓口では少し待たされたが、保険証はすぐ発行してもらえた。取引銀行のキャッシュカードを持って行って、国民健康保険料の自動引き落とし手続きをした。

国民健康保険証のカードを眺めていると、自分も無職になったのだなあ、としみじみ思う。

Health insurance after retirement: Voluntary continuation for one year, then National Health Insurance

  After retiring at age 60, I continued to work through my employment extension and was enrolled in my employer's health insurance until I was 65. After that I will be unemployed, so I need to think about what to do about health insurance.

I can choose between voluntary continuation for up to two years or national health insurance. Even if I choose voluntary continuation, I can stop at any point during the two years.

If I choose voluntary continuation, I can also get a medical checkup for free, so I took that into account when calculating the costs. You can estimate the costs of national health insurance on the website provided by the city or town where you live.

In the first year, the voluntary continuation fee was less than the national health insurance fee + medical checkup fee, so I chose voluntary continuation.

After I quit my job, I looked for a job for a year, but I was only able to do short-term part-time work. When I calculated the costs for the second year, the national health insurance fee + medical checkup fee was less than the voluntary continuation fee, so I sent a letter of termination of eligibility to the health insurance association and they processed it. However, a medical checkup costs tens of thousands of yen. Although the content is inferior, I plan to use the specific health examination service provided by the city for 1,000 yen in the future.

The monthly health insurance premiums for my wife and I were as follows: While employed: 11,000 yen
Voluntary continuation: 24,000 yen
National health insurance: 7,000 yen

Looking at it this way, the cost of voluntary continuation was quite high.

Voluntary continuation is slightly cheaper if I pay for a year in advance, so I set the voluntary continuation period to March 31st. In order to switch to national health insurance from April 1st onwards, I went to city hall with the document stating that my voluntary continuation status had been lost. Since it was the beginning of April, I had to wait a little at the city hall counter, but they issued my insurance card right away. I took my bank's cash card with me and applied for automatic withdrawal of my national health insurance premiums.

As I look at my National Health Insurance card, I realize that I, too, am now unemployed.