11.01.2024 – 09:30
AOK Scientific Institute
Berlin (ots)
According to a current evaluation by the AOK Scientific Institute (WIdO), the average financial burden on those in need of care who live in a nursing home increased again last year. Compared to 2022, there was an increase of 19.2 percent in care-related additional payments. Despite the introduction of surcharges to limit the personal contribution to care-related expenses, the average total burden on residents is now back to the level of 2021 as a result of the rising prices, i.e. before the surcharges were introduced by politicians. A WIdO forecast for further developments makes it clear that even the current increase in surcharges and the planned dynamization of benefit rates in 2025 are unlikely to be able to sustainably stop the trend towards ever higher financial burdens.
The current analysis shows that at the end of 2023, the residents were reimbursed an average of 569 euros per month by the nursing care insurance for their own care-related contributions in the form of surcharges staggered according to the length of residence. They had to pay an average of 874 euros for care themselves, plus an average of 909 euros for accommodation and food and 484 euros for investment costs. This results in an average total burden of 2,267 euros per month. It is therefore approximately at the level before the introduction of the surcharges for relief, which are staggered according to the length of residence and have been in effect since January 1, 2022. These supplements have provided significant relief for those in need of care who live for a long time. Last year, residents who had lived for more than three years – around 40 percent of those in need of full-time care – paid a facility-related contribution of just 433 euros for their care. “Overall, however, the trend towards ever higher personal contributions is unbroken,” emphasizes Antje Schwinger, head of the nursing research department at WIdO. The average financial burden on residents in 2017 was 1,752 euros, more than 23 percent lower than today.
As of January 1, 2024, the surcharges for care-related expenses paid by the care insurance funds have been increased: for those in need of care who live in a fully inpatient care facility for up to a year, they will rise from 5 to 15 percent. For a residence period of one to two years there is an increase from 25 to 30 percent, for two to three years from 45 to 50 percent and for a residence period of three years or more from 70 to 75 percent. At the beginning of 2025, the general benefit rates for nursing care insurance are also expected to increase: instead of the previous 1,775 euros per month for care level 4, for example, there will then be 1,855 euros (plus 4.5 percent). “It is already foreseeable that the costs of care in homes will continue to rise. This has, among other things, increased wage costs as a result of the facilities’ obligation to pay their employees according to the collective agreement and the inflation-related tariff increases,” explains Antje Schwinger. In a forecast for the further development of care-related personal contributions, the WIdO ran through various scenarios. “If one assumes a rather moderate increase of 10 percent in own contributions compared to previous years, the own contributions will already be above the 2023 level by 2025, despite the decided increases in surcharges and the dynamization of the benefit rates,” says Schwinger.
Large regional differences, but a trend towards equalization of prices
The WIdO analysis of developments in 2023 also includes a comparison between the individual federal states. It makes it clear that the level of financial burden on nursing home residents varies greatly in the individual federal states: While the total additional payments at the end of 2023 in Saarland were 2,640 euros per month, in Saxony-Anhalt it was only 1,800 euros. The range in the costs of accommodation and meals is particularly large: while in Saxony-Anhalt you only have to pay 720 euros, in North Rhine-Westphalia it is 1,156 euros.
“The care-related additional payments also vary greatly from region to region. Overall, however, the prices between the regions have converged significantly over the years,” emphasizes WIdO research department head Antje Schwinger. In 2019, the average care rates in the western federal states were more than 200 euros higher than in the east. This difference has now reduced to 44 euros. According to the WIdO, this adjustment is, among other things, related to the introduction of the tariff compliance regulations on September 1, 2022. Since then, the regional associations of nursing care funds have only been allowed to conclude supply contracts with nursing facilities that pay at least the tariff amount. “This may have contributed significantly to the equalization of prices, because the care-related costs are largely determined by wage costs,” says Schwinger. A look at the districts and independent cities in Germany shows what significant effects this can have. Since December 31, 2021, the facility-related own contributions (EEE) have increased by more than 572 euros in every fifth district. The increases were above average in the eastern German federal states as well as in Hesse, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein.
Note for editors:
The WIdO provides analyzes on the development of personal contributions in fully inpatient care on a quarterly basis.
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Original content from: AOK Scientific Institute, transmitted by news aktuell