SPD threatens to block: intensive negotiations about care

Is the nursing reform coming or is it not coming? The Union and the SPD continued to argue vigorously on Monday over the structure of social nursing care insurance. Resistance had already formed in the SPD over the weekend. Prominent Social Democrats announced that they would block the cabinet decision planned for Wednesday if necessary.

The decision on Wednesday is still planned, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Berlin on Monday. The reform to stabilize the cash-strapped nursing care funds lies with the CDU-led ministry. Federal Health Minister Nina Warken presented a first, widely criticized draft bill; Her successor Carsten Linnemann has been responsible for the project for two months.

This now has to implement a complicated but urgently awaited reform - the long-term care insurance companies are in deficits worth billions. The new CDU minister has already backed away from a controversial proposal: He withdrew the reduction in pension points for caring relatives after persistent criticism. But the draft bill provides for further cuts. There are ongoing discussions, said the ministry spokesman. “There are intensive negotiations going on.”

The SPD fears a “pure austerity package,” said parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch in Bild. SPD General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf, parliamentary group deputy Dagmar Schmidt and SPD Prime Ministers Anke Rehlinger from Saarland, Manuela Schwesig from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Olaf Lies from Lower Saxony made similar criticism. “Nursing care insurance not only needs financial bridging, but also structurally sustainable and fair financing,” said SPD health politician Christos Pantazis.

The SPD is demanding two things: a “care cap” and a financial balance between social and private care insurance. The common life risk of care is distributed unequally between statutory and private systems, said Pantazis on Deutschlandfunk. Thomas Brahm from the Association of Private Health and Care Insurance (PKV) rejected this on Monday. Financial equalization or the transfer of aging provisions is “constitutionally untenable”. And that's not even the SPD's ultimate goal: in the long term, it is aiming for citizens' insurance for care.

With the “care cap”, the SPD wants to limit the increasing personal contributions to care costs. These have risen sharply; A place in a nursing home currently costs around 3,400 euros per month on average nationwide. In the ARD report from Berlin, Linnemann rejected such a “care cap” as ineffective. He would only save 300 euros, says Linnemann.

There are reservations not only in the SPD, but also in Linnemann's own party: the care reform should not "just become another austerity law," said the head of the workers' wing (CDA), Dennis Radtke, to the editorial network Germany. He calls for the non-insurance benefits to be examined. These include, for example, the pension insurance contributions of caring relatives or five billion euros in Corona aid that the nursing care insurance companies have lent to the state.

The pressure for reform also became clear among associations and the opposition on Monday. It is long overdue, said Joachim Rock from the Joint Association, that the coalition is now arguing about improvements to the Care Reorganization Act. “Shifting more and more costs onto those insured and those in need of care, cutting benefits and just buying time with loans” does not do justice to the challenges.

In the short term, Rock demanded that the Corona aid be repaid. Green MP Simone Fischer also demanded this. She called the arguments “irresponsible”. Those in need of care and their relatives need security and reliability, says Fischer. Whether the coalition partners were able to agree on a timetable on Monday remained unclear at the time of going to press.