Dispute over care savings plans: SPD stands in the way

dpa | The Union and the SPD started the new week with a dispute over the planned care reform. Health Minister Carsten Linnemann actually wanted to bring his plans to the black-red cabinet on Wednesday. However, the SPD threatened to block Linnemann's austerity plans. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) actually wanted to speed up reforms after the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, which were partly disastrous for the governing parties.

According to media reports, the coalition is expecting internal crisis talks today. According to Bild, a Merz spokesman spoke of “negotiations at working level”. Linnemann said on the ARD program “Report from Berlin” about the dispute: “This is nothing unusual.” He pointed out that the most recent reform of statutory health insurance had only been agreed upon two hours before the cabinet discussion. At the same time, he criticized: “You should do something like that behind closed doors and not in front of the door.”

SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch told Bild: “The SPD parliamentary group will not go along with a pure cuts package.” The necessary structural reforms were missing. That could and must change. The SPD put forward two specific demands: a “fair contribution” from those with private insurance, as Miersch called it, and a care cap, which is intended to counteract the ever-increasing amount of personal contributions for those affected and their relatives for a place in the home. However, Linnemann rejected a care cover. “We wouldn’t solve the problem,” he said on ARD.

Linnemann confirmed his plan, according to which structural reforms according to the law that has now been announced will be discussed in a commission from October. First aid should now be provided so that those in need of care continue to receive their benefits and the contributions remain stable. What is currently publicly known from the ministry is a draft by Linnemann's predecessor Nina Warken (CDU). In the case of personal contributions, the levels of relief surcharges to those affected should be extended over time. A stricter classification into care levels was also planned.

Green party leader Britta Haßelmann was disappointed with the black-red federal government. She told the Rheinische Post: "I had hoped that the coalition would finally go in one direction and find a common compass. Instead, the arguments continue." She warned of rising costs for contributors and called for the burden to be distributed fairly. “A good care reform does not make cuts for those who rely on care or who provide care,” she said. This also includes limiting the increasing personal contributions in inpatient long-term care instead of asking those in need of care to pay more and more.