The statutory long-term care insurance recorded a deficit of around 2.2 billion euros last year. Which is not without consequences. In the summer, the contribution rate for long-term care insurance is to be increased by 0.35 to 3.40 percent.
In view of the difficult financial situation in long-term care insurance, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach intends to increase the contribution rate by 0.35 percentage points as of July 1, according to a press report. This emerges from a draft bill by the Federal Ministry of Health for a law to support and relieve nursing care, the editorial network Germany (RND) reported. Employees and employers generally pay half of the contribution – excluding the childless allowance.
The statutory long-term care insurance posted a deficit of around 2.2 billion euros last year due to the continuously increasing number of people in need of care. The contribution rate is currently 3.05 percent of gross income. For childless people, it has been 3.4 percent since January 1, 2022.
With the law, the Ministry of Health also wants to implement the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court on the consideration of the upbringing effort of parents. According to the draft, the childless supplement is to be raised by 0.25 contribution rate points to 0.6. Members with several children, on the other hand, are relieved of 0.15 contribution rate points per child from the second child up to the fifth child (from the fifth child the same reduction of a deduction of 0.6 contribution rate points).
“To ensure the financial stability of social long-term care insurance”, “the contribution rate will be raised moderately by 0.35 percentage points on July 1, 2023,” according to the RND in the draft bill. The increase is “inevitable”. The reasons are the demographic development, higher expenses for the reduction of personal contributions in inpatient care, the high costs for the reimbursement of additional expenses related to the pandemic and the reduced income of the care facilities.
The Ministry of Health wants to ensure that the long-term care insurance can continue to fulfill its task, including “effectively supporting those in need of care and carers, especially caring relatives,” the RND further reported. Lauterbach therefore wants to strengthen home care. The care allowance will be increased by five percent on January 1, 2024.
The care benefits in kind are also to be increased accordingly. According to RND, the draft states: “In view of wage-related increases in care allowances for outpatient care facilities, outpatient benefits in kind will be increased by five percent on January 1, 2024.”
According to the report, the ministry should also counteract the “trend towards increasing own shares even more strongly”. According to the draft, the benefit surcharges to reduce the personal contribution to be borne by those in need of care in full inpatient nursing care are to be increased again by five to ten percentage points from January 1, 2024.
The federal government is also aiming for automatic dynamization of cash and non-cash benefits on January 1, 2025 and January 1, 2028 based on price developments. For the long-term performance dynamics, the federal government wants to “work out proposals in this legislative period”.
