The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will survey municipalities that are reducing or waiving premiums for nursing-care insurance for low-income senior citizens, ministry officials said.

The ministry survey comes as an increasing number of municipalities are cutting nursing-care premiums for the elderly, particularly low-income seniors, despite ministry instructions to avoid such cuts.

Since last October, those aged 65 or over have been paying fees totaling half the premium. This month, however, they must pay them in full.

Analysts say that the average monthly premium -- 2,900 yen -- is too much of a burden for elderly people subsisting on pensions. They also criticize the system's fee scale, which charges pensioners premiums that are nearly the same premiums as those paid by people with incomes of about 2 million yen a year.

According to a ministry survey conducted in April, these circumstances have prompted some 139 cities, towns, villages and wards to either reduce or waive premiums for low-income citizens, and that number is believed to have doubled in the past six months.

Among the nation's 12 major cities, Chiba, Kyoto and Hiroshima will introduce a system to relax premium requirements beginning this month, following similar moves that have already been made by Yokohama, Kawasaki, Osaka and Kobe.

Nine wards in Tokyo will also introduce the system, in addition to Chiyoda Ward.

Premiums for citizens aged 65 or older are set individually by municipalities. Although municipalities are allowed to set their own rules for premium collection, the ministry has indicated it is against entirely waiving premiums for some low-income earners.

Opinion is divided among municipalities. Some say premiums for the elderly should be waived or reduced throughout the country. Others say that not collecting premiums or reducing them for some people could generate public distrust in a system that should be supported by the entire society.

By the end of this month, the ministry will determine whether municipalities are adopting premium reductions or waivers, and if they are abiding by the basic principles stipulated by the government, such as not transferring funds from general accounts to cover shortfalls in income derived from premiums.

The ministry intends to use the information gathered in the survey as the basis for altering premiums in April 2003, the officials said.

According to the ministry, insurance benefit rates for fiscal 2000 were about 86 percent, lower than originally expected, with the total reserved funds of municipalities standing at about 532 billion yen.

The ministry assumes that many municipalities use reserved funds as resources to compensate for premium reductions or exemptions.

However, raising the premiums for nursing-care insurance is considered to be unavoidable as the insurance benefit rate is expected to increase in accordance with increased costs for facilities.