Increased care insurance required

The Association of Social Services demands an increase in long-term care insurance. Dementia will increase significantly in the next twenty years.

09/02/2011

Due to the continuous increase in dementia, the Federal Association of private providers of social services is calling for an increase in long-term care insurance. Otherwise, the care of dementia sufferers is in danger in the future, says the association.

In the next twenty years, the number of dementia patients in Germany will increase from 1.2 million to around 1.8 million. Without the increase in nursing care contributions, the Association of Private Social Services believes that adequate care can no longer be guaranteed. Without a slight increase in contributions, they put an appropriate care of home residents on the line, warned the chairman of the Federal Association, Bernd Meurer to the news agency dpa. For this reason, the long-term care insurance contribution rate must be raised above the currently planned increase. According to the association's head, a further adjustment of 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points is necessary. Currently, the contribution rate for social insurance contributions is 1.95 percent.

Financial resources are not enough for proper care
Currently, only about 700 million euros per year for the special care of dementia patients are provided. According to the expert, however, meaningful and appropriate care would require about 3.6 billion euros per year. The care insurance allocations still follow the old definition of the original concept of care. So far, the long-term care insurance is still based on physical ailments, Meurer said. "Dementia patients often require intensive care around the clock. But this does not play a role in the calculation of the nursing effort ".

The medical service of the public health insurance companies mostly orient themselves when assessing whether a caregiver can dress, eat or wash himself. But what happens in the remaining 23 hours of the day, asks the association chief critically. Many patients can not orient themselves and are usually helpless. The limited definition of care and inadequate care services put a heavy burden on families and relatives. They have to care for their relatives themselves and often do not receive adequate support.

The Federal Ministry of Health has announced that it will launch a care reform later this year. At the same time, services for dementia sufferers are to be expanded and adapted. The plans of the Minister of Health Philipp Rösler to introduce a private supplementary health insurance, failed because of the criticism of the health insurance. The Federal Government intervened and contradicted the plans to privatize long-term care insurance in the future. Due to demographic change, people are getting older and older. As a result, age-related diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes and dementia will increase significantly in the near future. Even today, a continuous increase in age-related diseases is detectable. (Sb)

Image: Gerd Altmann, Pixelio.de