After the SPD called for further improvements to the nursing care reform, criticism came from the health insurance companies: The reform had to be implemented urgently, the health insurance companies would run out of money.
Berlin. The nursing care insurance companies are warning the SPD not to block the announced nursing care reform. “Not acting would be fatal,” said the head of the National Association of Health Insurance Funds, Oliver Blatt, to the German Press Agency. “The care reform must now come to the German Bundestag.” The Federal Government Commissioner for Nursing, Katrin Staffler (CSU), made a similar statement. SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch had called for changes to the reform plans of Health Minister Carsten Linnemann (CDU) and threatened to block them.
Blatt reiterated: “There is a red alert in nursing.” It has long been known that care will accumulate a deficit of 4.4 billion euros by the end of the year. “In just a few months the money will simply run out.” His appeal is “currently aimed particularly at the SPD,” said Blatt.
Support for the SPD comes from Verdi. “The SPD is taking up the massive criticism of the planned care reform, which we very much welcome,” said Verdi board member Sylvia Bühler to the dpa. Reforms are needed that do not further burden people.
Demand for more structural changes
Germany's top consumer advocate, Ramona Pop, also called for further consultation by the coalition on reform. The federal government's previous plans did not strengthen nursing care, but rather weakened it. “Cutting services, passing costs on to those in need of care and relatives and delaying key promises from the coalition agreement, such as limiting personal contributions for nursing home residents, are the wrong approach,” emphasized the board member of the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) to the “Rheinische Post”.
The nursing representative Staffler, however, criticized: “Continually new proposals from the SPD are delaying the urgently needed nursing reform.” This endangers the financial stability of long-term care insurance and thus the security of care for millions of people in need of care. The reform must go to the cabinet as soon as possible. Work on structural reform ran parallel. For private health insurance, PKV association director Florian Reuther accused the SPD of “ideological demands” with which they were blocking the urgently needed reform.
The head of the statutory health insurance association, Blatt, said: “If this threatens to block people in order to avoid benefit cuts, then I see that the key to a fairer solution lies in the SPD-led finance ministry.” Blatt renewed the health insurance companies' demand to finance so-called non-insurance benefits such as pension contributions for caring relatives from tax revenue. This alone is worth five billion euros.
Linnemann had announced that he would bring his reform plans to the cabinet next week. But SPD parliamentary group leader Miersch told “Bild”: “The SPD parliamentary group will not go along with a pure cuts package.” The necessary structural reforms were missing. That could and must change.
Miersch emphasized that the reform must see care as a task for the whole of society. “That’s why privately insured people must also make their fair contribution.” He expects “concrete suggestions” for this.
The SPD's ideas for a price cap for the increasing personal contributions in the home are also taking shape. Saarland is proposing a two-stage model. In stage one, the share of those affected should be limited to a maximum of 1,500 euros. Then the personal contribution costs should fall below 1,500 euros through grants.
The suggestion is contained in a letter from Saar Health Minister Magnus Jung (SPD) to his country colleagues, which is available to the dpa. The ARD first reported on the concept. In July, the personal contributions for nursing home care alone rose to an average of 3,364 euros per month in Germany.
The current head of the Chancellery, Nina Warken (CDU), from whom Linnemann took over the health department, had presented plans that were primarily about savings. In addition to savings in surcharges that are intended to provide relief for personal contributions, restrictions on free co-insurance for spouses and stricter classifications of care levels were included.
A few days ago, during his latest announcements on care in the Bundestag, Linnemann said that billions would have to be saved next year. The SPD also does not deny the need for reform.
