For the Green leader, caring relatives are “the pillar of our health system that is often underestimated”. Accordingly, their commitment must also be supported financially.
Green Party leader Ricarda Lang has called for more support for caregivers. “The first thing is that we see that there is more compatibility between care and work and that the rights of caring relatives are strengthened in labor law,” said Lang of the German Press Agency in Berlin.
This requires a care leave law that makes it easier for caring relatives to reduce working hours and that better reflects “social reality”, said Lang. “For example, people who care for an aunt or a neighbor that they can also fall back on it.”
The Greens leader added: “And in the long term, so if I look now at the next few years, then I think a wage replacement benefit is right, so that we also support caregiving relatives like we do with parental allowance.” This demand had recently been raised by politicians from the CDU and CSU.
Long: protection against poverty in old age
There are various ways of financing such a service, said Lang. “You can also look at long-term care insurance to see how we can continue to increase the contribution basis in the future, i.e. how we ensure that more people pay into long-term care insurance.” One could also talk about tax subsidies. Companies can also be held responsible. “I’m open to various possibilities. I wouldn’t commit myself to that. In the end, it’s important that there is this permanent support.” It is also about protecting women, who often take on the care, from poverty in old age.
Long described caring relatives as “the pillar of our health system that is often underestimated”. Four out of five million people in need of care are cared for at home, often without professional support. You have “huge respect for the performance of these people”.
Patient protector Brysch doubts Lang
Eugen Brysch, the head of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, welcomed the demand as correct and overdue. “The largest nursing service in Germany is female and shoulders the burden of care at home. The statutory loan payments for family care time, on the other hand, are ridiculously low and are therefore practically not used,” said Brysch of the German Press Agency.
However, he doubted that Lang was really serious about her request. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach and Prime Minister of Lower Saxony Stephan Weil (SPD) have just refused to even discuss the topic. “Ricarda Lang would have to make the wage replacement benefit a coalition issue. Otherwise the demand is simply bad summer theater,” explained Brysch.
Source: Stern
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