Social Association Germany (SoVD)
Berlin (ots)
SoVD CEO Michaela Engelmeier: “The so-called care support and relief law does not deserve the name and is a weakening of the Federal Minister of Health.”
Demographic change and cost explosion: It has been clear to everyone for years that something urgently needs to happen in the field of care in Germany. The care support and relief law now presented by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach should remedy the situation. But even at second, closer inspection, it turns out to be a bitter disappointment for SoVD CEO Michaela Engelmeier. “One can hardly speak of ‘support and relief’ any longer. This law does not even include what has already been agreed from the coalition agreement. It can be summed up in a simple formula: the law brings above all a hefty contribution rate increase and avoids the necessary cost-cutting measures from tax funds, as agreed long ago at the traffic light,” said Engelmeier.
The SoVD chairwoman is concerned about the self-commitment of the Ministry of Health that a recommendation for stable financing of long-term care insurance, to be presented by May 31, 2024, must be submitted to the Ministers for Finance, Economics, Social Affairs and Family. “We can only interpret that as an absolute weakening of Karl Lauterbach compared to Christian Lindner and it endangers a real but necessary financial reform in nursing,” says Michaela Engelmeier.
Above all, the law is a slap in the face for pensioners, says the SoVD chairwoman. “The increase in contributions hits them particularly hard, because they have had to pay the full contribution rate for long-term care insurance themselves for years. In addition, they get nothing from the contribution relief for insured persons with many children, because they should now only apply until the children have reached the age of 25. That makes the camel overflow! Here, the already adult children must also be taken into account in the contribution deductions. In addition, the contribution parity must finally apply to pensioners in the social long-term care insurance. For this it is urgently necessary that the German pension insurance half involved in the payment of contributions, as has long been the case in statutory health insurance,” says Engelmeier.
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SoVD Federal Association
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Original content from: Sozialverband Deutschland (SoVD), transmitted by news aktuell