Wednesday, June 02, 2021
Cabinet passes new law
Reform should bring caregivers more money
Nursing staff has been lacking in Germany for years – one reason for this is probably the pay. That should change the nursing reform that the federal cabinet has now initiated. But the package was immediately met with skepticism on the part of the associations concerned.
Thanks to a new nursing reform, nurses can still hope for better pay – the federal cabinet passed a corresponding bill this morning after a long dispute. According to Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn, the pay of the nursing staff will increase by up to 300 euros per month. “We want to make care more attractive, that is one of the most important concerns of this federal government,” Spahn had previously told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. The law is due to come to the Bundestag in June.
The “care package” should ensure that in future all care workers will be paid according to the tariff, without overburdening home residents. These should also be relieved of their contributions. Until they really have more money in their wallets, nurses have to be patient until well into the coming year – until September 1, 2022. From then on, supply contracts may only be concluded with care facilities that pay according to the tariff or a similar amount.
There were still changes to the previously announced plans for the relief surcharges for those in need of care. The personal share for pure care should now fall by 5 percent in the first year in the home – then by 25 percent in the second year, by 45 percent in the third year and by 70 percent from the fourth year onwards. Initially, the discharge was planned from the second year.
Childless pay more
To finance this, the federal government is to pay an extra billion euros annually to long-term care insurance from 2022 onwards. In addition, childless people should contribute more. Your surcharge for the care contribution is to be increased by 0.1 points to 0.35 percentage points in the future. This increases the contribution for them from 3.3 to 3.4 percent of the gross wage.
Better pay for urgently needed nurses was the declared goal of the grand coalition. In the care of the elderly with around 1.2 million employees, according to the Ministry of Labor, barely half of the collective wage is paid. An attempt at a collective agreement, which SPD department head Hubertus Heil wanted to make binding for the entire industry, failed at the beginning of the year.
At the same time, self-paying shares for those in need of care in the home are increasing, most recently at 2068 euros per month in the national average. On the one hand, it includes the co-payment for pure care. Because, unlike health insurance, long-term care insurance only bears part of the costs. For home residents, however, there are also costs for accommodation, meals and investments in the facilities.
Criticism from employers and trade unions
Criticism of the care reform came from the employers’ side. She accused the federal government of breaking her word. The Federal Association of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) criticized the increased expenditure. “According to the motto ‘After me the flood’, new costs for long-term care insurance are being produced which can no longer be paid in the coming year with the counter-financing that has now been decided and will therefore inevitably lead to premium increases”, complained BDA managing director Steffen Kampeter.
This would not solve the structural challenges of long-term care insurance and the following generations as well as the contributors to the plaything of party-political profiling. This is the opposite of a sustainable policy. “Anyone striving for the social security guarantee cannot agree to this draft. The cap on social security contributions at 40 percent remains indispensable,” demanded Kampeter.
Verdi warns of convenience agreements
The Verdi union considers the draft to be inadequate, as the regulations on higher pay are not an adequate substitute for a collective agreement for the entire care sector. “There is no mechanism in the draft law that excludes compliance agreements between pseudo unions and care providers who still do not want to pay fair wages,” criticized Sylvia Bühler, a member of the Verdi federal executive board. “Even with such collective agreements, the prerequisite for a supply agreement would then be met.”
The German Caritas Association was disappointed that home care would go away empty-handed with the reform. Caritas President Peter Neher criticized the reform “no improvements for caring relatives” can be found. After the federal election, the new government will have to tackle a nursing reform again.
The financing of the long-term care reform was objected to by the health insurance companies. DAK boss Andreas Storm told the Handelsblatt that the planned measures were a “heavy burden for the future federal government”. The long-term care reform has so far been completely inadequately financed. “For the year 2022, a deficit of 2 billion euros is already emerging, which would continue to rise massively in the following years,” said Storm. The consequence would be substantial increases in long-term care insurance premiums. In addition, the planned limitation of personal contributions for nursing home residents takes effect much too late. “This misses the important goal of reducing the increase in welfare recipients in nursing homes in the coming year,” said Storm.
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