Andreas Storm, the head of the DAK-Gesundheit health insurance fund, has sharply criticized the proposals put forth by the Federal Minister of Health, Nina Warken (CDU), regarding a reform of long-term care. Speaking to the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” Storm stated that the newly revealed suggestions for the care reform would drastically worsen the existing problem of rapidly increasing out-of-pocket costs for residential care.
He expressed concern that, contrary to initial announcements meant to ease costs for residents, the plans actually involve massive service cuts. According to DAK-Gesundheit’s preliminary estimates, these changes would cause the proportion of people relying on social assistance in institutional care to rise from the current 37 percent, reaching above 40 percent by 2029 at the latest. Storm further predicted a potential increase to 50 percent within the next decade.
He warned that this outcome would effectively turn nursing homes into an entrenched “poverty trap” for a growing number of people. Storm concluded that, unlike reforms proposed by statutory health insurance, these cost-saving suggestions in care disproportionately burden the contributors and the care recipients themselves, making such a reform unsustainable in terms of public acceptance.
