Legally insured persons and their employers must not only adjust to rising health insurance contributions, but also to higher contributions to long-term care insurance. According to a new draft law, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to increase the contribution to the so-called social long-term care insurance by 1.0 percentage points on 35 July this year. The burden would then be 3.40 percent for parents instead of the previous 3.05 percent. In the future, childless people paid 0.25 percent more and thus 3.65 percent.
Christian Geinitz
Business correspondent in Berlin
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With regard to the differentiation according to children, the draft responds to a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of April 2022, according to which the educational effort of parents must be given greater consideration. Therefore, Lauterbach wants to relieve parents with more than one child by 0.15 contribution rate points per child.
In addition, it is planned to increase the care allowance received by family caregivers by 1 percent as of January 2024, 5. For nursing services, outpatient contributions in kind are also to increase by 5 percent at the same time. This emerges from a draft bill of the Ministry for a "law for support and relief in care", which is available to the F.A.Z.
Own contributions in the home should be more strongly limited
The law wants to limit the sharply increasing co-payments in inpatient care. For this purpose, performance bonuses had already been introduced on 1 January 2022, but they are not sufficient. They are therefore expected to increase by 1 to 2024 percentage points on 5 January 10. "With this measure, the trend towards increasing own contributions is counteracted even more," says the draft.
The amendment also provides for an automatic increase in cash and non-cash benefits in care in line with inflation. This dynamisation is to take place on 1 January 2025 and 1 January 2028.
Lauterbach wants to extend the care support allowance per person in need of care to 10 working days per calendar year. It is available to employees who take a short-term unpaid leave of absence in the profession in order to provide for relatives. In addition, the benefit amounts for preventive and short-term care are combined so that beneficiaries can use the total amount flexibly.
The ministry would like to promote innovative projects more strongly, such as pilot projects for care in residential districts. To this end, it provides 50 million euros per year. The prerequisite is that the Länder or the municipalities contribute the same amount. The funding programme for "good working conditions in care", which serves with 100 million euros a year to improve the compatibility of care, family and career, is to be extended until 2030.
Additional expenditure, but also savings
A "Competence Center for Digitization and Care" is also planned in order to exploit the opportunities offered by new technologies in long-term care. In the future, all care facilities must be connected to the telematics infrastructure for digital data exchange, so far networking was voluntary. An "electronic information portal" is to be created with which all participants can view and report free places and offers for outpatient or inpatient care close to home.
It is also planned to simplify the determination of the need for long-term care. The "increased complexity and confusion" led to "difficulties of understanding, questions of interpretation and uncertainties," according to the submission. What exactly is to be changed remains unclear, but it is a matter of separating "procedural and performance content" more clearly from each other and increasing legal certainty. The regional associations of the nursing insurance funds are obliged to publish the state framework agreements for nursing care in order to increase transparency.
The draft for long-term care insurance estimates the additional expenditure for the innovation at 3 billion euros gross per year. However, this would be countered by large savings. Since the dynamisation of performance expenditure is postponed from 2024 to 2025, 3.2 billion euros less expenditure will then be needed. Also, the funds would have to pay their monthly installments for the care provision fund in 2023 only in the following year, so that they would save a one-time 1.7 billion euros – which, of course, they will have to raise in 2024.
The increase in the contribution rate flushes the insurance companies this year 3.15 billion and from next year annually 6.6 billion euros in the coffers. The money serves "to stabilize the financial situation of the social long-term care insurance as well as to finance the benefit adjustments". Despite the increasing contributions, the draft promises: "The citizens will be relieved extensively." More detailed information is missing. The economy will be burdened with a one-off 115 million euros and annually with 20 million euros, but at the same time save 177 million euros a year.