11.08.2023 – 15:55
AOK Federal Association
Berlin (ots)
The current draft bill for the budget financing law for the 2024 federal budget provides for the federal subsidy for social long-term care insurance to be canceled by 2027 in order to plug the financial gaps in the state budget. To compensate, the contribution-financed funds for the care provision fund will be reduced accordingly until 2027. The comments of the chairman of the board of the AOK federal association, Dr. Carola Reimann, as follows:
“The federal government is evading its financial responsibility for social long-term care insurance. Instead of adequately meeting its financing obligations, the traffic light coalition wants to completely cancel the federal subsidy for long-term care insurance of one billion euros a year, which is already too low, in order to reduce government spending and comply with the debt brake Contributions from the insured and employers, which should actually flow into the care provision fund in order to relieve the burden on contributors from 2030, are thus indirectly misappropriated for the purpose of restructuring the federal budget.
It is a nasty surprise that the cancellation of the subsidy is now to apply not only to 2024, but even up to and including 2027. The structural deficit of long-term care insurance, which will also arise again in 2025, should be covered solely by the contributors. It is essentially caused by non-insurance services that the long-term care insurance takes over for the state.
With this irresponsible and short-sighted policy, the financial stability of the social long-term care insurance is significantly weakened. The traffic light’s current course is a breach of the coalition agreement and the promise of stable financing for the SPV in the long term. The problems are deliberately postponed to the next legislature. It is already foreseeable today that the proposals for long-term financing of long-term care insurance announced by Minister Lauterbach for May 2024 can only be symbolic. Instead of the further tax subsidies agreed in the coalition agreement to refinance the pension contributions of caring relatives or for the additional costs of long-term care insurance caused by the pandemic, no tax funds will flow for several years.
Long-term care insurance that is based on solidarity and reliably financed over the long term makes a significant contribution to social justice in our country. It is an important anchor of stability for our society, especially in times of crisis. The current policy is jeopardizing that.”
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Original content from: AOK Federal Association, transmitted by news aktuell