Verena Bentele, president of the VdK social association, is demanding significant changes to the Federal Government’s planned nursing care reform. Bentele stated to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” that the reorganization of budgets is making it increasingly difficult for many individuals to access personalized support services. She noted that recipients are now being forced to change their established care situations and are running into limitations.
The government is developing the reform aimed at stabilizing contributions to the long-term care insurance in the short term. This process involves grouping various services into common funds.
The head of the social association criticized the government, arguing that by rigidly sorting care into four separate funds, the rules compel care recipients to pay more out of their own pockets when the allocated budget is exhausted. She deemed this approach irresponsible. Bentele pointed out that simply because the budget for professional nursing services is depleted, a care recipient cannot necessarily be supported by a neighbor, and conversely, not every person needing care requires expensive full-time professional service-but they may be forced to seek it out if their neighbor’s care budget has been used up.
She fears these changes will place added strain on family caregivers. “The government continuing to complicate access to services is catastrophic,” Bentele remarked. “Caregivers need simplification and more support, not less. They should not have to care until exhaustion simply to temporarily patch the financial hole in the nursing care insurance.”
To prevent this, the VdK is calling for the reimbursement of 5.2 billion euros in “Corona debts” owed to the long-term care insurance. This refers to additional services provided by the insurance bodies during the COVID-19 pandemic that the Federal Government never compensated.
Furthermore, the VdK insists on establishing a unified long-term care insurance plan into which all citizens must contribute. Bentele concluded to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” that instead of trying to save money by giving recipients fewer services, the government should ensure the nursing care insurance has sufficient resources. “We need a fresh approach to clearly address the financing of care.”
