>>713590035
This isn't exactly true, the government covers all healthcare and your co-pay is always 30%. The thing is, all Japanese healthcare services are locked into fixed prices by the commie state, so better hospitals can't charge more than others unless they are fully private, which is very rare. The public hospitals do not require upfront payment, and if you can't pay afterwards will often worth with patients so they can pay (but probably won't take you again if you have outstanding fees).
The real issue this can happen with is something like cancer, where stuff like chemo is covered as medicine rather than services and thus can charge you a fairly high price for it (30% of thousands of dollars every month is still a lot of money)
You hear more horror stories of tourists getting into accidents and then ignoring the bill and leaving the country than you do Japanese citizens being turned away at the door.
