Linnemann faces financial and personal challenges with the care reform

Carsten Linnemann (CDU) has two problems: a financial problem and a personal job problem. Both have to do with care, because with the care reform he has inherited a reform project that can only make himself very, very unpopular. And as if that wasn't enough, a year ago Linnemann made no secret of the fact that he would not seek a ministerial office. As is well known, everything turned out differently; he has been Federal Minister of Health since the end of July.

This week Linnemann has to negotiate the care reform, which is intended to quickly save billions of euros, to be precise: eight billion euros in the coming year, ten billion in the year after that. Linnemann inherited the draft for the so-called Care Reorganization Act (PNOG), as the care reform is actually called, from his predecessor Nina Warken. It promises relief of more than eleven billion euros as early as 2027. But a significant part should come from cuts: fewer pension contributions for caring relatives, supplements for nursing homes only much later, fewer benefits when the need for care begins and less support in the first few months after a new classification.