The federal cabinet has finally passed the planned nursing care reform after several days of intense disagreement within the CDU/CSU and SPD coalition. This outcome was confirmed by sources from government circles during the cabinet session.
Initially, details regarding the agreement between the Union and the SPD were scarce. According to the newspaper “Handelsblatt”, the coalition partners agreed to establish a commission, defining its tasks and timeline so that it can tackle subsequent steps of the reform.
Uncertainty remained until Wednesday morning regarding whether a deal would be reached. In recent days, the SPD had registered concerns about the draft law proposed by Health Minister Carsten Linnemann (CDU) and had even threatened to block the legislation. Matthias Miersch, the SPD party chief, had stated, “A sheer cutting package will not receive support from the SPD parliamentary group.”
