/dpa
Berlin – Health insurance companies in Germany have come out in favor of a fundamental realignment of long-term care insurance. “The house of nursing care insurance is, figuratively speaking, on fire,” said Anne-Kathrin Klemm, board member of the umbrella organization BKK in Berlin.
A deficit of one billion euros is already forecast for this year; A large negative figure of 4.4 billion is forecast for 2025. “In addition to stabilizing finances, we especially need a renewal of supply structures so that policyholder contributions do not disappear into nirvana and we can dampen the future force of demographic change .”
Specifically, Klemm called for a greater emphasis on prevention and rehabilitation in order to prevent or at least delay the need for care. Family caregivers, who already assume more than 80 percent of nursing care today, would also need to receive greater support in the future.
“Relative caregivers need to be entitled to a care salary in certain life situations. It should represent a clear recognition of the double burden of paid work and care and, at the same time, provide financial support if only caring for family members at home,” says a document on the reorientation of care.
Klemm also complained about the huge amount of support offered in outpatient care. This means that caring relatives know nothing about this help. “Those who need care are entitled to services, but there are no on-site offerings.” Services such as childcare, short-term care, respite care and relief grants would therefore have to be combined into a relief budget.
The BKK board member disputed the impression that there were too few nursing staff in Germany. “Germany has the highest number of nursing professionals per 1,000 inhabitants in Europe, after Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries,” she said.
“More staff is the worst solution – it depends on distribution.” Klemm therefore called for trained nursing staff to be given more skills in medical care and for nursing staff to be deployed more in villages and districts or in municipal nursing care centers. © kna/aerzteblatt.de