The planned nursing care reform, introduced by Federal Minister for Health Nina Warken (CDU), is facing criticism from the SPD coalition partner. According to reporting by the German newspaper “Die Welt” Christos Pantazis, the SPD parliamentary group’s health policy spokesperson, acknowledged that the draft includes beneficial approaches for improving care for those in need. He noted that the increased focus on prevention and rehabilitation, along with support for caring relatives and measures aimed at reducing bureaucracy, moves in the right direction fundamentally.
However, Pantazis sharply criticized the draft for failing to provide a central answer to the financial crisis within the nursing insurance system. He pointed out that a key socialist demand-establishing a financial structural balance between the statutory social care insurance and private mandatory care insurance-was omitted from the current working draft.
Support for the reform comes from the CDU’s Union faction. Simone Borchardt, the Union’s spokesperson for nursing policy, stated that the goal is not to take anything away from the citizens. Instead, she argued that the plan aims to reorganize the social nursing insurance so that it remains capable of fulfilling its commitments in the future. Borchardt also emphasized that the nursing insurance was never designed as a comprehensive, universal insurance scheme.
In contrast, Simone Fischer of the Green party’s parliamentary group found fault with the draft. While conceding that elements within the working draft regarding the new nursing care ordering law were correct-specifically noting the stronger focus on prevention, rehabilitation, and improvements in home support-she maintained that the federal government was setting the wrong priorities overall. Fischer asserted that the government’s strategy to stabilize the nursing insurance relies primarily on forcing care recipients, relatives, and contributors to pay more, labeling this not a structural reform but simply a shifting of burdens.
The Left party viewed different measures differently. Evelyn Schötz, the parliamentary group’s spokesperson for nursing policy, deemed the increase in the contribution assessment threshold a correct and vital step given the challenges facing the nursing insurance system. Conversely, she strongly condemned the other proposed austerity measures, describing them as socially unjust. Schötz highlighted that people with average pensions and few assets are already reliant on social assistance from day one if they require care in a facility, precisely the situation the nursing insurance system was established to prevent.
