The Social Democratic Party (SPD) is threatening to block the Cabinet decision on the planned long-term care reform scheduled for Wednesday. “We will not accept any cuts to care benefits,” SPD Secretary-General Tim Klüssendorf said on Friday evening. The party wants to continue negotiations before giving its approval, according to the ARD capital bureau. Patient advocates welcomed the move, while care providers warned of a prolonged period of uncertainty.
The proposals currently under discussion could lead to “massive cuts” for care workers, people in need of care and their relatives, Klüssendorf said. Instead, the SPD wants to limit the amount people in need of care have to pay themselves. “With this, we want to prevent people and their families from being financially overwhelmed by care costs,” he said, referring to the care cost cap demanded by his party.
According to the ARD capital bureau, further talks are planned for Monday. However, there is reportedly little expectation within the SPD of a quick agreement. Federal Health Minister Carsten Linnemann (CDU) had announced that he wanted the Cabinet to approve his draft care reform bill on Wednesday.
The planned Care Reorganisation Act initially included cuts to pension entitlements for relatives who provide care. Linnemann later announced that this measure would be dropped. The SPD is also calling for a limit on the costs that people in need of care have to pay themselves. In early September, Saarland Minister-President and SPD deputy chair Anke Rehlinger proposed a monthly cap of €1,500 on care-related co-payments for people living in nursing homes.
Klüssendorf also called for a system in which everyone contributes, or at least for a “fair financial equalisation” between private and social long-term care insurance. Such an equalisation is “a concrete minimum demand in reorganising care financing” for the SPD, SPD health policy expert Christos Pantazis also stressed. The longer-term goal remains “a joint, solidarity-based insurance system,” he said.
Patient advocates have welcomed the SPD’s stance. “Cuts are not reform. It is good that the SPD is now pulling the emergency brake on the planned care legislation,” said Eugen Brysch, head of the German Foundation for Patient Protection.
He said that the co-payment for care itself should be capped and that insurance subsidies for people in need of assistance at home should be adjusted in line with the development of costs. “It is equally possible, in compliance with the constitution, to merge private and statutory long-term care insurance,” Brysch added. “Both insurance systems provide the same benefits.”
The Association of German Elderly and Disabled Care Providers (VDAB), which represents private care companies, is warning of a prolonged period of uncertainty amid the negotiations over the care reform.
From October, the long-term care insurance system would be short of around €500 million, VDAB Managing Director Thomas Knieling told the Funke newspapers. A quick solution is currently not in sight. “This is creating increasing uncertainty for care facilities and people in need of care,” Knieling said. The CDU/CSU and SPD must now do everything possible to “finally get the care reform underway.”
The Association of Private Health Insurance (PKV) accused the SPD of blocking the care reform with “ideological demands.” Association Director Florian Reuther described this as “irresponsible.” He also considers the financial equalisation between private and social long-term care insurance demanded by the SPD to be “unconstitutional.”
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