(de-news.net) – Through a combination of spending reductions and extra revenue measures, Federal Health Minister Nina Warken’s proposed long-term care reform aims to alleviate mounting financial strains in Germany’s nursing care insurance system. The package is designed to counter significant predicted deficits and includes key components such as delayed access to higher nursing home subsidies, increased contributions from higher-income earners, lower pension contributions for family caregivers, and a higher surcharge for childless contributors, according to media reports.
Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) plans to implement a far-reaching reform package that combines additional revenue-generating measures with targeted expenditure reductions. The proposed changes are intended to strengthen the financial sustainability of the system in response to mounting fiscal pressures and projected funding shortfalls. The current system of graded subsidies for residents of nursing homes would remain in place under the reform proposal. However, eligibility for higher reimbursement levels would be delayed by six months at each stage, effectively slowing the progression of benefit increases.
According to the draft, this adjustment would generate savings of 2.6 billion euros in the coming year and 2.7 billion euros in 2028. At the same time, the reform envisages a substantial increase in the contribution assessment ceiling, modeled on arrangements already used within the statutory health insurance system, thereby requiring higher-income earners to contribute more. The measure is expected to raise an additional 1.6 billion euros in 2027 and 1.7 billion euros annually in each of the following two years.
Government seeks 20-billion-euro annual fiscal effect from care overhaul
Additionally, the draft provides for lower pension contributions by long-term care insurance funds on behalf of informal family caregivers. This change is projected to reduce expenditures by 1.8 billion euros in the following year, with annual savings gradually increasing to 2.1 billion euros by 2030. Furthermore, the contribution surcharge imposed on childless contributors would rise by 0.1 percentage points, bringing the total surcharge to 0.7 percentage points and providing another source of additional revenue for the system.
According to reports, Warken expects Germany’s long-term care insurance system to face a cumulative deficit of 22.5 billion euros over the next two years. The reform package is designed to mitigate this financial imbalance, with an estimated fiscal impact of 11.25 billion euros in 2027 that is projected to increase to 20.34 billion euros annually by 2030. Despite broad agreement across the political spectrum that structural reform of the long-term care system is necessary, several elements of the proposal remain contentious within the governing coalition, highlighting ongoing disagreements over how the financial burden of reform should be distributed.
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