Social issues: BUND-Länder-AG is looking for a solution for care reform

The care comes to millions of people and their relatives to be more and more expensive, and the costs for long -term care insurance are increasing. In order to fundamentally secure finances, a working group of the federal and state governments should now develop suggestions for a reform. The committee provided for in the coalition agreement between and SPD and SPD came together for his first session in Berlin. Results are to be presented this year.

Federal Minister of Health Nina Warken (CDU) said before the start on ZDF that it was a total package to get stability in long -term care insurance. The AG has a wide order and “no bans”. It should also be seen which services should be available in the future. Prevention is important to protect people from being in need of care.

AG for a “future pact of care”

The working group for a “future pact” also includes family minister Karin Prien (CDU) and other ministries for the federal government, and the department heads responsible for care on the country. The municipal umbrella organizations and the black and red coalition factions in the Bundestag are also involved.

The financial nuts in nursing have already become chronic. After a deficit of 1.5 billion euros last year, the next contribution to the contribution after the previous one in the summer of 2023. This year, long -term care insurance expects a small minus of 166 million euros. The federal government plans to stabilize a loan of 500 million euros and still one of 1.5 billion euros in 2026. So that premium increases will not have to come again next year, there is still no money.

The financial injections should now give politics time to tackle the targeted “large reform”. Overview of the construction sites and adjustment screws:

The number of people who receive care benefits is increasing significantly – “to a stronger extent than is expected by the aging of society”, as the Federal Statistical Office explained. The background is a reform of 2017 that introduced further criteria for the classification of a need for care. There are currently 5.6 million beneficiaries after it was 4.0 million in 2019. According to a forecast by the official statisticians, there could be an increase to 7.6 million people in need of care by 2055.

Last year’s expenditure rose to 63.2 billion euros last year after just under 57 billion euros 2023. In 2014 it was still 24 billion euros and in 2019 a good 40 billion euros. A major cost factor are increasing personnel expenses for urgently needed nursing staff. Since 2022, the care contracts of the long -term care funds have only been possible with homes that pay according to collective agreements or similar.

For people in need of care and their relatives, care means that they have to pay part themselves – and it increases and increases. Unlike health insurance, the long -term care insurance does not bear the full costs. For the approximately 800,000 people in need of care in homes, accommodation and meals are added, and levies for investments in homes and training are also passed on. At the beginning of 2025, this added up to almost 3000 euros a month after cash data in the first year of the home stay in the national average.

Some cost dampers have already installed previous federal governments. In this way, residents of residents have now increased surcharges that are supposed to alleviate the increase in additional payments for pure care. The long -term care insurance funds cost more and more – for 2025, an increase to 7.3 billion euros is expected, according to a report by the Federal Audit Office. The care allowance for people who are looked after at home was increased again in 2024 after several years. A federal subsidy was deleted.

Various suggestions for a financial reform have long been on the table: from more tax billions to lids for your own shares to a conversion of the model to full insurance, which bears all care costs. The long-term care insurance companies also demand that the federal government will reimburse billions of bills from the Corona crisis and pay pension contributions for caring relatives. BUND-Länder-AG is also intended to check incentives for more self-provision-and the scope of services.

More money from the state or private provision?

The German Foundation for Patient Protection warned: “The future pact of the future can only succeed if the federal and state governments comply with their obligation to finance.” The federal government and the federal states are responsible for the fact that long -term care insurance and those in need of care would have been withheld from 15 billion euros annually. The Association of Private Health Insurance campaigned for promoting private provision. Value controls are now to be put to the test.