Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
Bremen/Berlin (ots)
What can Bremen do to prevent nursing home operators from going bankrupt and to ensure the quality of care for the elderly in the state? On behalf of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation, experts have addressed these questions in a legal opinion and a short economic expertise.
For the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation explains their managing director Daniela Trochowski: “Commercialization is one reason for the blatant shortage of staff in all social services. Nobody can and wants to work under such conditions. The situation in geriatric care is serious because the need will go through the roof in the coming years. In order to put the welfare state on the In order to continue to develop over time, public services must be in the hands of the public. A remunicipalisation of care for the elderly is urgently overdue. With the report, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation wants to show what legal leeway there is to limit the destructive dynamics of the market.”
The expert Christoph Trautvettereconomist and researcher in the Tax Justice Network, on the results of his brief expertise ‘Who owns the aged care? Ownership and business practices in inpatient geriatric care in the state of Bremen’: “Almost half of Bremen’s nursing homes are privately operated. Regardless of whether they belong to a local founder, a family office worth billions or international (real estate) investors, they are under high pressure for returns and growth. This causes quality defects and instability – like the current ones show bankruptcies.
On the findings in the legal opinion ‘Orientation towards the common good in geriatric care: Regulatory options for state legislators to improve quality in care facilities in the state of Bremen’,says Sebastian Baunackspecialist lawyer for labor and administrative law: “In the 1990s, the federal legislature opened up the geriatric care sector to market competition and private-sector actors. However, it can also limit it again to institutions that are committed to the common good, as it did in the field of youth welfare has done. As long as he does not do this, it will be difficult for the federal states to adequately promote institutions committed to the common good.”
Co-author of the reportAnna Gilsbach, LL.M., specialist lawyer for social law, comments: “The freedom to provide services and freedom of establishment under Union law is a valuable asset. However, according to the convincing opinion of the OVG Hamburg, the welfare state is not subject to Union law. Interventions in the entrepreneurial freedom of private organizations can be justified by the common good, as argued in a decision on youth welfare. In view of the demographic change and the great importance of care for society, this should also apply to care insurance.”
Sofia Leonidakischairwoman and socio-political spokeswoman for the DIE LINKE parliamentary group in the Bremen parliament, describes the situation of geriatric care in Bremen as worrying: “We are increasingly observing in geriatric care that the priority is to generate the highest possible returns instead of caring for people well Both the quality of care and the working conditions of the staff suffer as a result.In the case of profit-oriented care providers in Bremen, the number of complaints and the number of deficiencies identified is significantly higher than in non-profit organizations.
In addition, the market-based care system is not sustainable, as the recent insolvencies of three nursing home operators in Bremen show.
We LEFT finally want to get out of this sick system. We consider it urgently necessary that public and non-profit organizations be given more support instead of allowing market structures that put pressure on the caregivers and those in need of care! The legal opinion presented today shows that this is possible.
In Bremen we want to set up a municipal care provider for the elderly so that we can offer care places ourselves. This enables us to ensure care that focuses on people and good working conditions. So that a municipal provider can also act as an equal provider of care services, we call for the abolition of the subsidiarity principle in geriatric care at the federal level.”
Notice
The brief expertise “Who owns the geriatric care? Ownership and business practices in inpatient geriatric care in the state of Bremen” by Christoph Trautvetter can be found here:
The Legal Opinion “Focus on the common good in geriatric care: the state legislature’s regulatory options to improve the quality of care facilities in the state of Bremen”. You can find Sebastian Baunack and Anna Gilsbach here: https://www.rosalux.de/publikation/id/50177
For questions you can contact:
Alrun in Kaunas-Nüßlein
Head of Political Communication
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
Tel.: 030 44310-448
Mobil: 0151 28260484
E-Mail: [email protected]
Eva Przybyla
press secretary
Group DIE LINKE. in the Bremen Parliament
Tel: 0421 / 20 52 97 50
Mobil: 0176 / 43 28 85 60
E-Mail: [email protected]
Press contact:
Jannine Hamilton
Spokeswoman | Rosa Luxemburg Foundation | political communication
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Phone: 030-44310-479 | Mobile: 0173-6096103
Original content from: Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation, transmitted by news aktuell