Pflegeversicherung: SPD will bei Pflegereform Leistungskürzung verhindern

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) has vehemently opposed cuts to the Pflegeversicherung, or health insurance for care, as part of health minister Carsten Linnemann's planned reforms. Generalsekretary Tim Klüssendorf warned that the reforms mainly threaten care providers, those in need of care, and their families. "Massive cutbacks are threatened for caregivers, for those in need of care, and for their relatives," Klüssendorf stated, emphasizing that such cuts would not be accepted.

He called for more relief for care home residents and a deeper restructuring of financing, but did not specify how this would look given Linnemann's plans. The CDU minister aims to bring a financing stabilization bill for the statutory care insurance into the red-green cabinet the following week. Care insurance funds are under significant pressure, with a projected billion-dollar deficit for 2027.

SPD wants to significantly relieve care-dependent individuals in the future, Klüssendorf said, referring to a proposed care cap advocated by Saarland SPD minister-president Anke Rehlinger - a cap on the self-contribution for a place in a care home. "We want to prevent people and their families from being financially overburdened by care costs," Klüssendorf said, adding that the aim is to create a fair and solidarity-based system where everyone contributes or at least receives a fair financial compensation between private and social care insurance.

Rehlinger had advocated capping the self-contribution for care-dependent individuals at €1,500. Following an evaluation by the Association of Replacement Insurance Companies, the first-year home cost amounted to €3,364 per month on average. SPD health policy expert Christos Pantazis suggested how the Social Democrats would leverage private care insurance: he argued that statutory and private care insurance have different risk structures and called for a "system-wide, risk-oriented financial compensation."

This is a "concrete minimum requirement for restructuring care financing," explained the health policy spokesman for the Bundestag faction. Eight billion euros are to be saved at the current stage of the care reform, aiming to cover the expected billion-dollar deficit for 2027 without general contribution hikes. Linnemann plans to bring this proposal into the red-green cabinet the following week, saying, "We spend around €74 billion a year on care insurance, and we have to save €8 billion next year. This already shows the challenge."