DGB presents concept for civil insurance care

German Trade Union Confederation Presents Concept for Citizen Insurance Care

03/03/2011

In his reform concept for long-term care insurance, presented today in Berlin, the DGB Federal Board proposes a "Citizens' Care Insurance". „The rising need for care calls for a solidary response, so that people in need of care and carers as well as contributors and municipalities are protected from overloading“, said Annelie Buntenbach, DGB board member, on Thursday in Berlin. The DGB therefore proposes to extend the long-term care insurance to a "civil health care" to finance the necessary care needs in solidarity and to keep the burden of contributors in the long term within narrow limits.

According to DGB calculations, the contribution rate would have to be raised to 2.8 percentage points already in 2014 without a financial reform in order to finance the growing need for care, the necessary dynamisation of care services and the consideration of dementia patients. Due to the DGB proposal for a 'citizens' insurance care', however, the necessary premium increase can be limited to 2.45 percentage points by 2030. „Through the 'Bürgerversicherung Pflege', the contribution rate in 2030 is even below the government forecast, with the difference that the improvement in long-term care benefits is guaranteed in the long term“, so Annelie Buntenbach.

Cornerstones of the DGB concept for 'Citizens' Care' are the inclusion of the private long-term care insurance in a financial equalization, the consideration of capital income, an adjustment of the income threshold and the tax financing of pension contributions for family carers.

Annelie Buntenbach warned the coalition against calculating the need for care artificially small, in order to present a new load wave to the insured one after the other. „If the federal government does not adequately take into account the future need for care, social assistance dependency will increase again in the case of long-term care. Then the municipalities are threatened with a new wave of encroachment. The aim of the upcoming care reform must be to avoid such a care collapse“, explained the DGB board member. The Federal Ministry of Health is assuming a premium increase of 2.1 percentage points in 2014 and 2.5 percentage points in 2030.

The plans of the coalition for private supplementary insurance rejects the DGB as nonsensical and highly socially unjust. „Imposing private supplementary insurance for 70 million insured persons, which can not even cover their individual and general care requirements, would be a fraud on the citizen“, explained Annelie Buntenbach. The DGB also rejects the introduction of a per capita lump sum in nursing care. „It would be an affront if the coalition after the health care reform would freeze the employer's share also in long-term care insurance and again would pass the burden alone on the insured“. (Pm)