Massive criticism of the Pflege-Bahr

Specialists in the health committee criticize the massive „Care-Bahr“

06/26/2012

The „Care-Bahr“ (Word creation analogous to „Riester pension“) continues to cause fierce discussions in the professional world. From 2013, private contributions to a so-called Nursing Care Insurance are to be subsidized by the federal government with five euros a month, according to the plan of the .Government from CDU / CSU and FDP. In this way, the politicians hope to initiate an improved private protection of the care risks.

But the im „Care-Bahr“ The proposed five-euro state subsidy for private care provision is met with considerable criticism among experts. Only the private health insurance companies have already signaled the full support of the project. Trade unions, social organizations and the public health insurance companies reject the „Care-Bahr“ However, fundamentally and practiced massive criticism of the proposal of the Federal Government.

Five euros monthly grant for private care
The model, named after the Federal Minister of Health Daniel Bahr (FDP), provides for a subsidization of private care provision of five euros per month. Entitlement to the grant is to be met by all applicants of full age who have until now not received any long-term care benefits or benefits and are paying at least ten euros per month into eligible care allowance insurance. A further restriction or selection of insured persons in the sense of risk selection by the responsible insurer is not provided for. The Health Committee of the Bundestag has now held a hearing of experts on the so-called „Care-Bahr“ It became clear that the proposals of the Federal Government are not only critically evaluated by the opposition.

Unsocial and uneconomic proposal for private care?
Experts from the statutory health insurance, social organizations and trade unions showed a clear negative attitude towards the „Care-Bahr“. The proposal was equally antisocial and uneconomic, the reasoning. Professor Klaus Jacobs, head of the scientific institute of the AOK (WIdO), even went one step further and recommended that the project be stopped altogether, because for older people a corresponding private safeguarding of the care case would be too expensive and thirty-year-old would be the benefit lying far in the future difficult to convey. The chairman of the Association of insured (BdV) and Actuary Axel Kleinlein said that the administrative costs of contracts, allowances and risk structure compensation would probably consume the entire state subsidy, so that in the end, the subsidized care tariffs may be significantly more expensive than the not funded.

PKV for the introduction of the „Care-Bahr“
The generally rather than CDU and FDP friendly minded representatives of the employers, the „Care-Bahr“ also hardly positive, since this makes no contribution to the sustainable financing of long-term care insurance. However, unlike social organizations and trade unions, employers would have wished for a more comprehensive expansion of private care provision. The representatives of the private health insurances, however, supported the model of the Health Insurance Committee at the hearing „Care-Bahr“ and expressed confidence, despite the obligation to contract at the beginning of 2013 to realize the implementation of corresponding products. These would then compete with the unsubsidised offers. However, the director of the Association of Private Health Insurance, Dr. Volker Leienbach, one that by law the back and forth between the subsidized and non-subsidized products must be excluded. Because possibly the subsidized products would be more expensive than the non-subsidized, since in the latter a clear risk selection takes place. A dynamic adjustment of state subsidies could, however, counteract this problem, according to Leienbach. The distribution of the subsidized care provision should be organized together with the statutory health insurance, according to the PKV director.

In view of the very different positions of the experts on the proposals of the „Care-Bahr“ In the coming months, intensified discussions about its design can be expected, although the black-and-yellow German government is unlikely to abandon its original intention of a stronger private initiative for long-term care provision. (Fp)

Read about:
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Nursing insurance: SPD wants to ask PKV to checkout
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Rösler plans private supplementary care insurance
Contribution assessment limit is lowered
Contribution increase expected at nursing care insurance

Picture credits: Rike