英語日記 胸の痛み、日本のコロナ検査

I took a day off today to go see a doctor because my left chest slightly hurts. The pain started yesterday and hasn’t disappeared until now. Probably it’s nothing because it’s a quite mild pain.

The good part of Japan’s healthcare system is that you can consult with doctors at a low cost, that is, the majority of the cost is covered by the national health insurance. This is why I’m going to see a doctor today. I believe this system greatly contributes to the public welfare. However, because of the aging of the society where the fewer number of youth are expected to support the financial burden to give healthcare for the greater number of elderly, some claim that the system wouldn’t be able to sustain due to growing cost. This being said, as long as I can make a good use of the system, I’ll just use it.

As for the healthcare system, one thing that is really strange to me is that as many COVID-19 tests seem to be not happening in Japan as in some other countries. There are some vocal experts on the internet who claim that the increase of tests will create extra work for medical workers and could overwhelm them, and it would be less effective to test asymptomatic people and they might as well focus on investing limited resources for treatment or other things. Along with this light, the government seemingly tried to restrain the number of tests for some period from the beginning of the pandemic. They seem to have changed the policy, but I’m not sure if the change is actually happening.