Kommunen: Städte für Pflege-Vollversicherung - mehr Sozialhilfekosten

Der Deutsche Städtetag wants to change the care insurance into a full insurance that covers all care costs. This would prevent people from falling into social welfare due to care costs, said SPD President Burkhard Jung. Municipal budgets would be relieved "dollar by dollar" with such a change. Care expenses for those in need have been rising sharply.

In the previous year, six billion euros were spent on care assistance, according to the Federal Statistical Office, up 13.3 percent from the previous year. This represented 27.8 percent of all social welfare spending, a 3-year increase from 23.6 percent in 2022. The coalition government is working on a reform of the care insurance which currently only covers part of the costs.

Care recipients pay a portion for pure care but have to pay the full cost themselves in care homes. A draft law presented by former Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) would include spending brakes and revenue increases to cover chronic billion-euro gaps in the care insurance and avoid general contribution increases. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) said the reform would be on the agenda in the fall.

This is one of the major projects of the new Minister Carsten Linnemann (CDU). The Städtetag also calls for limiting the burden on care home residents. "A possibility could be to set a ceiling for co-payments that varies with income," said Jung, the SPD Mayor of Leipzig. They could look to the approach of Saarland's Minister-President Anke Rehlinger (SPD) to charge co-payments above 1,500 euros per month from care homes.

The federal government, states, and municipalities would have to jointly finance a ceiling. The increase in pressure on municipalities is also due to their massive financial strain, said Jung. "With a budget deficit of 30 billion euros per year, the municipalities are completely cornered." However, they would have to step in if seniors can no longer afford their own co-payments.

In Leipzig, care assistance costs have risen by 300 percent over five years. Mostly in the East, fewer people can afford their co-payment. "It cannot be that the social welfare office becomes the regular financing of care," said the German Social Association. They emphasized the need for a full insurance covering all care costs to significantly relieve care recipients.

To secure the care risks of the entire population, the care insurance must be developed into a capable citizen insurance to which everyone contributes, including civil servants.