Berlin – On the occasion of the hearing of the Care Support and Relief Act (PUEG) in the German Bundestag on May 10, 2023, the Association of Replacement Health Insurance Funds e. V. (vdek) to focus more on outpatient care. Of around five million people in need of care in Germany, around four million are cared for at home – often in whole or in part by people close to them. “The federal government should pay more tribute to this enormous willingness to work on the part of the relatives,” explained CEO Ulrike Elsner. The fact that the cabinet draft does not contain the merging of the budgets for preventive care and short-term care should be adjusted in the ongoing parliamentary process. A common annual amount for respite care and short-term care would help those affected to secure the home care arrangement and would also be unbureaucratic.
Personal contributions overwhelm many people
According to Elsner, concrete performance improvements are also necessary for those in need of care and their relatives. “The planned measures, such as the surcharges to reduce personal contributions in inpatient care facilities or the moderate increases in care allowances and care benefits in kind in outpatient care, are unfortunately only a drop in the bucket.” These would have to be significantly higher to account for the general cost increases to compensate for rising wages and dynamic inflation, Elsner said in the run-up to the hearing. “Own contributions in nursing homes of an average of 2,411 euros per month nationwide in the first year after moving into a nursing facility overwhelm many people in need of care and mean that more and more people are dependent on social assistance.”
Performance improvements fundable
Elsner emphasized that the improvements in performance, from which those in need of care and their relatives could benefit, are possible and affordable. The financing measures included the equalization of the pension contributions of caregiving relatives (3.7 billion euros) and the assumption of pandemic-related costs of 5.5 billion euros with tax revenue. With a view to the constantly increasing personal contributions in inpatient care facilities, the federal states are required to fully assume the investment costs of inpatient care for the elderly. This also applies to the training costs. In addition, private long-term care insurance must finally participate in the financial equalization of social long-term care insurance (SPV). With the same legal entitlement to benefits, the burdens are unequally distributed here. That would relieve the SPV by up to two billion euros annually.
Current photos of the vdek CEOs for reporting can be found here in our picture archive.
The Association of Substitute Funds e. V. (vdek) represents the interests and service provider of all six health insurance companies, which together insure more than 28 million people in Germany:
– Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), Twitter: @TK_Press
– BARMER, Twitter: @BARMER_Presse
– DAK Health, Twitter: @DAKHealth
– KKH Commercial Health Insurance, Twitter: @KKH_Politik
– hkk – Handelskrankenkasse, Twitter: @hkk_Presse
– HEK – Hanseatische Krankenkasse, Twitter: @HEKonline
The Association of Substitute Funds e. V. (vdek) was founded in Eisenach on May 20, 1912 under the name “Association of registered commercial relief funds (substitute funds)”. Until 2009, the association operated under the name “Association of Employee Health Insurance Funds e. V.” (VdAK).
More than 290 employees work at the vdek headquarters in Berlin. In the individual federal states, 15 state representations with a total of around 380 and more than 30 employees in the care bases ensure the regional presence of the substitute health insurance funds.