Thursday, January 11, 2024, 12:00 p.m
Dortmund – The financial burden on nursing home residents in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has reached a new high. This emerges from a current evaluation by the AOK Scientific Institute (WIdO). Compared to 2022, there was an average increase of 15.1 percent in care-related personal contributions. Due to rising prices, the level of 2021 has now been reached again, i.e. before the introduction of surcharges by politicians to limit the personal contribution to care-related expenses. The WIdO forecast 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. “Current developments show that the political measures taken so far are not sufficient to limit the financial burden on nursing home residents. We urgently need effective and sustainable solutions to provide financial relief to those affected. But we also need an honest discussion about what long-term care insurance should cover as a partial benefit system in the future and what share the contributor-paying employees and employers have in this,” says Tom Ackermann, CEO of AOK NordWest.
The trend towards higher personal contributions continues unabated
The current WIdO analysis shows that at the end of 2023, the residents of nursing homes in North Rhine-Westphalia were reimbursed an average of 514 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 814 euros for care themselves, plus an average of 1,156 euros for accommodation and food and 583 euros for investment costs. This results in an average total burden of 2,553 euros per month for 2023. This is approximately at the level before the introduction of the surcharges for relief, which are staggered based on 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. For example, residents who have lived for more than three years – around 40 percent of those in need of full-time inpatient care – paid an average of 399 euros for their own care-related contributions last year. “Overall, however, the trend towards ever higher personal contributions remains unbroken,” emphasizes Ackermann. It is already foreseeable that the costs of nursing home care will continue to rise. According to the AOK boss, this has to do, among other things, with increased wage costs as a result of the facilities’ obligation to pay their employees according to collective agreements and inflation-related tariff increases. “Politicians are urgently required to slow down the trend towards ever greater financial burdens on nursing home residents,” said Ackermann.
Federal and state politicians must act quickly now
A measure that could be implemented quickly, according to Ackermann’s suggestion, is to remove training costs from your own contributions. This is a task for society as a whole that would have to be financed from tax revenues. “This would reduce the burden on those in need of care in the homes by around one billion euros in one fell swoop,” said Ackermann. This promise from the traffic light coalition agreement should finally be implemented despite the difficult financial conditions.
The states are also called upon to do their part to relieve the burden: the investment costs of nursing homes should no longer be burdened on those in need of care. Instead, they must be borne entirely by the states as part of public services. This would also provide effective relief for those affected. “We urgently need to financially strengthen nursing care insurance. The cancellation of the federal subsidy for long-term care insurance up to and including 2027 was another wrong step that must be corrected. If federal and state politicians do not take countermeasures, there will be a rude awakening by 2025 at the latest,” said Ackermann.
Have open and honest discussions
AOK boss Ackermann calls for an open discussion about structural changes in social care insurance. “Care is and remains a task for society as a whole. The federal government, states, municipalities and health and nursing care insurance companies have a shared responsibility to create needs-based care
Offers for health and nursing care and support,” says Ackermann. This also includes an honest discussion about what social long-term care insurance should provide in the future in its form as a partial benefit system and what share of the financing the individual actors have.
Surcharges for care-related expenses increased
As of January 1, 2024, the surcharges for care-related expenses paid by the statutory 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 five 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).