Heike Baehrens, SPD health expert. /image alliance, Geisler-Fotopress, Bernd Elmenthaler
Stuttgart – Due to rising care costs, many elderly people are having to sell their homes to finance a place in a nursing home. SPD health expert Heike Baehrens sees no problem with this.
“Why do we really assume today that anyone who has saved something can automatically pass it on to their children?” Steel cable-Video podcast “Get to the point intensely”. “If I have saved something, I have to use it when I need it and when it needs care.”
The health policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group called on people not only to rely on state support, but also to save for their old age. “My grandmother taught us: you have to save so that you have something for your old age.”
It’s not about saving money to pass on to our children, the 68-year-old said. “I’m sure my daughters will think it’s perfectly fine if we really need care and that we’ll use what we save for that.”
The personal contribution to nursing home costs has recently increased significantly to 2,871 euros per month in the first year of stay. In contrast, the average pension in Germany after at least 45 years of insurance is 1,543 euros.
Baehrens doesn’t see this as a problem: “If I get to the point where my money is no longer enough to pay for my care, then social welfare will come. Then I will have the opportunity to be cared for.” She doesn’t understand why people feel ashamed of being dependent on social welfare. “Why exactly?”
Baehrens previously worked as a Protestant deaconess and was managing director of the Diakonisches Werk Württemberg until 2013. Steel cable-Video podcast she complained that the costs of care were constantly claimed. “There really is something worse than expensive care – and that is no care.”
There’s one main reason for the high costs: “Because we know we have to pay people who work in care well so they enjoy doing it. She helped make sure that adequate wages were paid in care. “I fought to make these professions so attractive that we would still have people doing this work 20 or 30 years from now.” © kna/aerzteblatt.de