If one combines medical treatment covered by public health insurance with medical treatment not covered by such insurance, using newly developed treatment methods or drugs not yet approved by the public health insurance system, in principle one has to pay all the costs for both types of treatment.
A kidney cancer patient from Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, received interferon treatment, covered by public health insurance, and another treatment not covered by such insurance. He had to shoulder all the costs for both types of treatment due to the government rule on "mixed medical treatment." He filed a lawsuit to get public health insurance benefits for the interferon treatment.
In 2007, the Tokyo District Court ruled in his favor, saying that no explicit legal provisions to back the rule existed. But in 2009 the Tokyo High Court reversed the ruling. On Oct. 25, in its first ruling of its kind, the Supreme Court supported the government rule.