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Berlin – The debate about the financial problems in social long-term care insurance also reached the Bundestag this week. In a debate called at short notice, MPs from the traffic light factions as well as the Union declared that there urgently needed to be legislation on care financing. However, the way to get there remains controversial, as became clear over the course of around 60 minutes.
The SPD MPs in particular referred to the announcements by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (both SPD) that they would soon present concept proposals. MPs from the Greens and the CDU/CSU also expect these proposals.
“We are on the verge of collapse in social care insurance. Experts have been warning us for months. I lack any understanding for this inaction, dear traffic light,” explained Erich Irlstorfer from the CSU. “Take your parliamentary right of initiative into your hands and do something,” he called on the members of the government factions.
“I am waiting for the proposals to be presented by the Chancellor and the Federal Ministry of Health. We should move forward boldly,” said Maria Klein-Schmeink, the Green Party’s parliamentary group leader responsible for health policy. “We need a New Deal in care that puts the burden equally on generations. We are eagerly awaiting the proposals from the Chancellor and Federal Health Minister,” Kristine Lütke, nursing expert for the FDP parliamentary group, also explained.
The current financial problem in long-term care insurance was primarily due to the so-called non-insurance benefits, the SPD, Greens as well as the CDU, Left and BSW agreed on this. SPD politician Baehrens explained that nursing care insurance would have to be “reduced to its core tasks” in the future. “Everything that doesn’t belong must be financed from other sources.”
For them, this includes the pandemic costs, which amount to around six billion euros, non-insurance benefits such as pension contributions for caring relatives or the costs of nursing training.
The latter must be paid for from public funds, “not from the contributions of the insured”. And: “Shouldn’t the states pay the investment costs in full instead of putting the burden on those in need of care? Shouldn’t the municipalities fulfill their legal mandate to ensure good conditions before care is provided?” asked Baehrens.
For Tino Sorge, health policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group, the non-insurance benefits, which add up to up to ten billion, are the reason for the current problem. “But your FDP finance minister says I don’t care. I feel sorry for Minister Lauterbach that he cannot assert himself in the government.”
He called on the government to quickly present a concept. The Union presented a paper a year ago that was rejected by the traffic light factions. This concept is based on a three-pillar model for financing: more tax resources, company care provision, and younger people’s personal responsibility through private insurance.
The FDP MPs referred to this point in the debate – because from their point of view, private provision is the only possible model for better financing care. Above all, there was anger among the Liberals that the care laws from the time of the grand coalition had not been adequately provided with counter-financing.
“The seriousness of the situation was foreseeable,” said the FDP parliamentary group’s care policy spokesman, Jens Teutrine. Experts had warned the previous government, but the government at the time did not have this “respect for the contributors”. What is now needed is a “boost “in private provision.
The debate was requested by the AfD parliamentary group, which primarily highlighted concerns about the impending insolvency of long-term care insurance and a certain catastrophe scenario. All other parliamentary groups clearly contradicted this: “The nursing care insurance will continue to fully fulfill its tasks in the coming year,” said Baehrens from the SPD. Those in need of care and relatives could rely on this.
The federal government’s nursing commissioner, Claudia Moll (SPD), warned of the “insecurity of the population” through “unobjective criticism”. The same argument also applies to the Greens: Maria Klein-Schmeink explained: “There can be no collapse. Everyone, Anyone who has an established need for care will also have it financed. It is regulated by law what happens if the contributions cannot be paid.” All claims are financed, the Green politician continued.
Some MPs made it clear that a possible financing reform should not happen without a change in the content of care. In addition to the federal government’s nursing commissioner, the Green nursing expert Kordula Schulz-Asche also called for the nursing structures to be addressed in a reform.
“The task of nursing care insurance is not to invest in infrastructure, we need new concepts in the municipalities, we need day, night and short-term care, we need a loneliness strategy and much more.” Also: “We have to train, train, train . And we need migration,” said Schulz-Asche in the direction of the AfD. © bee/aerzteblatt.de
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