PRESS STATEMENT Long-Term Care: Genuine Structural Reform Instead of Piecemeal Measures!

“Insured individuals, workers, and those in need of care need anything but yet another law that cuts funding and shifts the burden. The need for care must not be a risk of poverty. Instead, the federal government—and the Federal Minister of Health in particular—is making care even more expensive for many people. This is the wrong approach from a social policy perspective.

The long-term care crisis is merely being managed by imposing additional financial burdens on, for example, childless individuals or co-insured persons. Individual, sensible improvements—such as those in acute and emergency care, rehabilitation, and care support—must not obscure the fact that the fundamental and structural problems in long-term care are not being solved. Employees face higher copayments, no contribution from privately insured individuals, no coverage of COVID-19 costs by the state, and no fairer financial basis.

The correct conclusion is this: We need genuine structural reform instead of piecemeal measures. Long-term care insurance must be immediately transformed into a universal, comprehensive insurance system. A system in which everyone contributes and which covers all benefits is fairer, more in line with the times, and also financially sustainable.”

Further information and press photos of Ralf Reinstädtler