SPD wants to improve care reform

Plans of the SPD coalition want to improve care reform As of: October 22nd, 2026 • 12:31 p.m

Nursing reform is likely to be discussed at the Prime Minister's Conference today. The SPD wants improvements - and is calling for the bill to be revised.

It is one of the black-red coalition's major reform projects. Before the upcoming discussions in the Bundestag on nursing care reform, the SPD now wants to implement improvements.

The SPD parliamentary group's health policy spokesman, Christos Pantazis, announced: "We want to financially stabilize long-term care insurance without undermining the solidarity-based character of our welfare state." The draft law will therefore be carefully examined during deliberations in the Bundestag.

Affordable care includes an “effective limitation of personal financial burdens, the protection of important care services and sustainable relief for municipalities when it comes to spending on care assistance.” A fair financial balance between social and private nursing care insurance is particularly important to him, he said.

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There is already a cabinet decision on the Care Reorganization Act. The bill will be on the Bundestag agenda in two weeks. Among other things, the contribution rates for childless people are to increase by 0.3 percentage points as of January 1, 2027. According to the plans, classification into a care level could be handled more strictly in the future.

Until the government reached agreement on the draft by Health Minister Carsten Linnemann (CDU), the SPD and the Union negotiated for hours in September - including at night until shortly before the cabinet meeting.

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Now there are further discussions. Manuela Schwesig and Anke Rehlinger also recently commented on the care reform. The SPD heads of government in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saarland are calling on the government to revise the draft and are criticizing, among other things, service restrictions.

Pantazis welcomed this. "The two Prime Ministers address important questions that are also of central importance to us as the SPD parliamentary group," he said. The position of the two SPD states can also be found in a draft resolution for the Prime Minister's Conference taking place today. At the same time, a specialist commission made up of health experts and lawyers will develop proposals for a far-reaching care reform in the coming months - and present them by the end of January 2027 at the latest.

With information from Mario Kubina, ARD capital studio

This topic in the program: MDR aktuell – The news radio | News | Oct 22, 2026 | 11:07 am