Above all, the caregiving relatives should be in focus – but there is criticism of the care reform, which the traffic light groups want to bring through the Bundestag today. Many of those affected are disappointed.
Caring for his wife starts early every day at Jochen Springborn. At 6:30 a.m. medication is given, at 7:00 a.m. the outpatient nursing service comes to support. Meanwhile, the 54-year-old starts working in his home office at 7:30 a.m. At 8:00 a.m. he provides his wife with breakfast.
This rhythm continues, sometimes until 11 p.m. He gets up twice in the night to look after his wife. There are long days, short nights, little time to rest.
His wife has multiple sclerosis. For 20 years she has been in need of care and dependent on help. Jochen Springborn takes care of them at home. In addition to a full-time job, which he can mostly do in his home office thanks to his employer, the Evangelical School Foundation in the EKBO.
Abandoned by politics
But it wouldn’t work without the help of a nursing service that comes by several times a day. In the case of care grade 5, the care insurance fund pays around 2,095 euros. However, the costs for the outpatient care service would have increased from EUR 4,000 to a total of EUR 5,300 last year. The personal contribution would have increased from around 2,000 to 3,300 euros. Jochen Springborn could not shoulder that. He therefore had to reduce the support from the nursing service again.
Now only the classic basic care is taken over. Away, for example, is help with the food supply and in the household. That means even less time for Jochen Springborn to cope with everyday life. He feels left alone by politics.
raising the care services “a slap in the face”
Jochen Springborn feels that the fact that care services for outpatient and home care are to be increased by 5 percent in the coming year and by 4.5 percent in the following year is a “slap in the face”.
These benefits have not been increased since 2017. For him and his wife, the planned increase means 104 euros more per month. They cannot afford more help from the outpatient nursing service.
Criticism also from social associations
Social associations are also not satisfied with the increase. In view of the high inflation, that is far too low, says Verena Bentele from the social association VdK Germany. The care reform is still far from a real improvement.
Bentele also criticizes the fact that no online portal for nationwide free care places is being introduced. Caregiving relatives often have to search for a long time or would not find a place at all for short-term care, for example.
Lauterbach defends the reform
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), on the other hand, defends the care reform. The minister rejects criticism that it is just a “little reform”. A total of 6.6 billion euros would be made available annually. This is financed by an increase in contributions. In addition, the contribution is differentiated more strongly according to the number of children.
In fact, Lauterbach’s law includes a whole bundle of measures. In addition to the increase in care allowance for home care by 5 percent, the surcharges for those in need of care in inpatient facilities will also be increased.
In addition, the traffic light factions have agreed on a so-called relief budget. From July 2025, preventive care and short-term care services amounting to EUR 3,539 can be flexibly combined. For parents of children in need of care, this budget of 3,386 euros will be available from the beginning of 2024.
discontent in the traffic light
You still don’t hear such satisfied voices when you ask around at the traffic light. There could have been more, according to the Greens and the SPD in particular.
Actually, it was agreed in the coalition agreement to put more tax money into the care system. For example, to finance pension contributions for caring relatives or pandemic-related additional costs that are still lagging behind the nursing care funds.
Opposition speaks of “air number”
This is an open flank for the opposition. The Union describes the reform as an “air number”. Despite the expansion, care services would continue to fall behind the inflation rate, says health policy spokesman Tino Sorge from the CDU.
His party colleague, former Minister of Health Jens Spahn, failed to raise the care allowance for caring relatives in the past legislature.
Health insurance companies lack perspective
The health insurance companies miss a long-term perspective for the care system. The traffic lights continue to drive on sight, says the chairwoman of the AOK Federal Association Carola Reimann. After six years of standstill, necessary performance improvements in the outpatient care sector would be quite poor.
At the same time, the social long-term care insurance is not getting back the five billion euros in corona costs that it laid out during the pandemic, nor are the pension contributions of caring relatives being financed permanently through tax subsidies. Instead, the threatening financial imbalance is averted in the short term simply by increasing contributions.
Reimann warns that this will only bring peace until 2025. The necessary sustainable solution for the financial stabilization of the social long-term care insurance will be further postponed.
Family members want to keep pushing
Jochen Springborn is now involved in the association “We care!”. He wants to help make home care more visible and he hopes many family caregivers will follow.
Only with more pressure will politicians actually bring about noticeable improvements. He draws strength for the exhausting everyday life above all from his love for his wife, he says.