The provident fund was set up in 2015 during the grand coalition.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is apparently considering stabilizing the deficit in long-term care insurance by suspending the long-term care fund. In return, the traffic light coalition is discussing a one-time waiver of the annual payment of around 1.6 billion euros and using the money to fill the existing deficit. First, the editorial network Germany reported about it.
The provident fund was set up in 2015 during the grand coalition. Every year, 0.1 percentage points of the premium income are invested in order to stabilize the premium from 2034. During this time, many baby boomers are expected to require care. The fund, which is managed by the Bundesbank, currently contains around ten billion euros.
The Union’s health policy spokesman, Tino Sorge (CDU), sharply criticized the plan. “Future generations will have to foot the bill for this policy,” said Sorge. The pension fund should apparently be dried up.
The cash registers also point out that the measure would only provide a short breath. “There should not only be short-term emergency surgery for long-term care insurance, but rather solid financing,” said the deputy chairman of the central association of statutory health insurance, Gernot Kiefer, to the Handelsblatt.
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The long-term care insurance alone had to raise around five billion euros in additional expenses due to the pandemic because they were not counter-financed by the federal government. Without the expenses, long-term care insurance would still have reserves.
“Not a good omen” for pension insurance
The head of the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit, Andreas Storm, even sees the step as a “misappropriation of funds intended for long-term capital cover”. This is not a good omen for pension insurance, in which a funded pillar is also to be set up.
Lauterbach has to take criticism for the step.
(Photo: IMAGO/snapshot)
“In addition, the funding gap in social long-term care insurance will be around three times higher than the 1.6 billion euros now planned,” Storm told Handelsblatt. Further emergency measures are therefore necessary to keep the contributions stable.
Other funds, in turn, had already called for such a path in October, when Lauterbach announced a financial injection of one billion euros for the current year to compensate for the deficit.
It does not fit into the tense situation “to take out loans at the same time and to divert 1.6 billion euros in contributions to the so-called care provision fund every year,” said the chairwoman of the AOK federal association, Carola Reimann. “Therefore, the provisional suspension of the provident fund must also be considered.”
The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds calculated in the summer that a total of 7.3 billion euros would be necessary to keep the contributions stable until the end of 2024. Alternatively, these would have to be increased by 0.35 percentage points in 2023.
>> Read here: Lauterbach wants to support nursing care funds with another billion
They are currently 3.05 percentage points for insured persons with children and 3.4 percentage points for those without children. With an annual gross income at the contribution assessment limit of around 58,000 euros, this would mean an additional burden of 200 euros per year.
More: Lauterbach promises clinics quick payment of the billions in aid