The SPD parliamentary group does not want to agree to the planned care reform by Health Minister Carsten Linnemann (CDU) in the Bundestag. Parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch told “Bild am Sonntag” that the current proposal from the Ministry of Health was primarily a package of cuts: “The necessary structural reforms are missing so far.” There is nothing stopping the ministry from presenting it now: “The SPD parliamentary group will not go along with a pure cuts package.”
Miersch described care as a task for the whole of society: "That's why privately insured people must also make their fair contribution. I expect concrete proposals from the Ministry of Health."
“Cutting on people’s backs”
SPD General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf had already declared on Instagram on Friday evening that his party “does not accept any benefit cuts on the backs of the people”. Care should not become a financial risk for those in need of care and their families. Those who care for relatives do “incredibly valuable work for our society” under great pressure.
To this end, the SPD is proposing a care cap, i.e. a limit on the personal contribution to the costs of a place in a nursing home, said Klüssendorf: “We also want a fair and solidarity-based system into which everyone pays, or at least a fair financial balance between private and social care insurance.”
Patient protectors on the SPD side
The German Foundation for Patient Protection welcomes the advances. “It is good that the SPD is now pulling the ripcord on the planned care legislation,” said board member Eugen Brysch of the Catholic News Agency (KNA). Future-proof and generation-appropriate financing must create predictability: “Here, the personal contribution for pure care must be capped and the insurance subsidies for those in need of help at home must be adjusted in parallel with the cost development.”
But his party's initiative will only be credible if SPD leader and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil follows up with concrete action, said Brysch. Among other things, the minister must repay the Corona loans amounting to 5.5 billion euros and take over the pension insurance benefits for caring relatives, which have increased to over five billion euros. But the federal states also have a duty: "They finally have to cover the training and investment costs. This immediately relieves home residents of 700 euros per month."
In addition, a merger of private and statutory long-term care insurance is possible in accordance with the constitution, Brysch added: "All measures together will give social care room for the next 15 years. Time enough to set up a long-term care fund similar to the planned pension reform."
More than 3300 euros of your own contribution
The Saarland Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger (SPD) recently suggested capping the personal contribution for those in need of care at 1,500 euros. According to the ARD capital studio, your Health Minister Magnus Jung (SPD) has now sent his departmental colleagues in the federal states a concrete concept for a so-called care cap.
According to the Association of Replacement Funds (vdek), the average personal contribution for a place in a nursing home is 3,364 euros per month nationwide in the first year. Because more and more nursing home residents cannot pay this, they end up on social assistance. This in turn puts a lot of strain on municipalities.
Statutory nursing care insurance only covers part of the costs of nursing care. The home residents' own contribution consists of care-related costs, including personnel costs, the costs of accommodation and meals as well as a share of the investment costs.
