German Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) is reportedly planning to raise long-term care insurance contributions for people without children as part of a sweeping reform of the care insurance system. According to a report by the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) on Tuesday, citing coalition sources, the additional contribution for adults without children would increase by 0.1 percentage points, bringing it to 0.7 percent. The proposal has drawn mixed reactions.
Under the proposed changes, insured individuals without children would be required to pay a total contribution rate of 4.3 percent from the age of 23. Contribution rates for insured individuals with children would remain unchanged at 3.6 percent for those with one child, 3.35 percent for those with two children, and 3.1 percent for those with three children, according to the RND report.
The Federal Health Ministry declined to comment on the report when asked by AFP. The ministry said its goal remains to present a draft bill for care reform.
Support for the plan has already come from the CSU. Katrin Staffler (CSU), the Federal Government's Commissioner for Care, told Mediengruppe Bayern: "Parents make an important contribution to maintaining our social insurance systems. When today's generation of children later pays contributions as adults and thereby co-finances the care of insured individuals without children, that is above all thanks to the parenting efforts of their parents."
She added that the additional contribution for people without children is intended to recognise precisely this contribution made by parents. The SPD has also signalled openness to higher contributions for adults without children. SPD health policy expert Christos Pantazis told Funke newspapers that the long-term care insurance system faces significant financial challenges.
"That is why we must openly discuss sustainable and solidarity-based financing," he said, adding that it is legitimate "to discuss different levers, including the question of a higher contribution for people without children."
The Greens, however, see "half-baked individual proposals instead of a viable overall concept" in the care reform. Green Party care policy expert Simone Fischer told Funke newspapers: "This is not how you build trust or create stable financing for the long-term care insurance system."
The Left Party called a surcharge increase for people without children "a cosmetic measure that comes nowhere close to solving the problems of the care insurance system." Left Party care policy spokesperson Evelyn Schötz criticised: "The proposal further hollows out the solidarity principle and would make the care insurance system even more unfair than it already is." She instead called for the integration of privately insured individuals into the statutory long-term care insurance system.
Verena Bentele, President of the social association VdK, expressed a similar view. A contribution increase of 0.1 percentage points for insured individuals without children "would have only a very minimal financial impact and would not plug the financial hole in the long-term care insurance system," she told the Rheinische Post. "Placing the burden one-sidedly on people without children is also unfair, since in many cases childlessness was not a free choice."
Thomas Knieling, Managing Director of the Association of German Elderly and Disability Services (VDAB), criticised isolated debates such as the one about higher contributions for people without children. He said such measures would not replace a sustainable reform strategy. The care sector is waiting "for the Health Minister to finally present a comprehensive reform, instead of further individual measures without a long-term perspective."
Warken estimates that the long-term care insurance system faces a combined deficit of €22.5 billion over the next two years. The minister intends to counter this with a major care reform. A draft bill had originally been announced for May but was postponed and is now expected by early July.
It is already known that Warken plans, among other measures, to cut subsidies for residential nursing home care. This would lead to significantly higher out-of-pocket costs for nursing home residents. Additionally, there are concerns about a generally more restricted access to long-term care insurance benefits going forward.
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