Protests continue against proposed additional burdens for those requiring long-term care. On Tuesday, the SPD and affected parties voiced their opposition to the plans of Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU), warning particularly about the risk of poverty in old age. The Medical Service responsible for assessing care needs called for the upcoming care reform to focus primarily on prevention to avoid or delay the need for care.
Rather than providing relief, Warken is increasing "pressure on those requiring care and their families," Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Minister President Manuela Schwesig (SPD) told the newspaper "Bild." The black-red government's initiative is not a reform, she said, but "merely higher co-payments."
"Whoever extends the incremental stages for nursing home subsidies helps the fewest," Schwesig warned. "This is a shifting of the problem at the expense of the most vulnerable." Instead, a comprehensive concept involving the federal government, states, municipalities, and care facilities is necessary.
Schwesig was referring to Warken's disclosed plans that would require nursing home residents to cover costs entirely on their own for up to six months longer. Berlin's Health Senator Ina Czyborra (SPD) told the newspaper that "simply cutting benefits does not move us forward." If subsidies for residential care take effect later, this will ultimately lead to more poverty in old age.
The Left Party also issued this warning and called on Warken to immediately stop the "antisocial plans." Instead, comprehensive care insurance must be implemented, and this is financially feasible, said faction leader Sören Pellmann. Green Party faction leader Britta Haßelmann also demanded a halt to the current plans. The problems of care insurance must not be solved at the expense of those affected and the municipalities.
DAK health insurance CEO Andreas Storm expressed similar concerns, warning of "irreparable damage to care insurance." The currently circulating proposals would result in significantly more people becoming dependent on social assistance, he told RND.
This would increase care poverty in residential care settings. At the same time, the plans would mean a considerable additional financial burden on municipalities. Caritas President Eva Welskop-Deffaa warned in the "Tagesspiegel" of a "sellout of social insurance coverage for care risk."
The Association of German Homes for the Elderly and Disabled called for short-term financial relief for the insurance system by having the federal government repay its debts from the coronavirus period and organizing the payment of pension contributions for family caregivers differently. Such "quick relief" would be "possible without cuts in care provision."
Meanwhile, the Medical Service pointed to the high importance of prevention and better networking of all parties involved in caring for those requiring care. The goal must be to further develop the assessment of insured persons into "needs-oriented and preventive impulse counseling," demanded Vice-Chairwoman Carola Engler.
The services function as advisory and assessment services for health and care insurance and handle the determination of care needs and care levels. According to the service, over six million people now receive benefits from social care insurance - this number has more than doubled since 2015. Additionally, according to the service, more and more children and adolescents are being assessed, although their share of all assessments remains small at six percent.
There is "great potential in the initial assessment to counteract a worsening of care dependency and to maintain the independence of people requiring care for as long as possible," emphasized the Medical Service. Often, remedies such as physiotherapy or occupational therapy are recommended, or mobility aids and bathroom assistive devices.
The Medical Service also called for the implementation of video assessments for initial evaluations. This not only saves travel but also involves relatives who do not live nearby. "Care dependency is not an unavoidable fate," Engler summarized, but rather it is determined by "influenceable risk factors."
Warken aims to limit the deficit of care insurance with the reform, which could also mean changes to the classification into care levels. For years, expenditures have exceeded revenues. Warken expects deficits in statutory care insurance totaling 22.5 billion euros over the next two years if reforms are not implemented.
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