Before a meeting of the health working group in berlin, CDU negotiator jens spahn promoted the idea of a collective provision fund for care needs that will increase in the future. In addition, the so-called "pflege-bahr" must remain in place or be strengthened. "We could imagine a family component in the financing of the state-required supplementary care insurance, so that someone who has more children gets a higher claim," spahn said.
SPD rejects both as steps in the wrong direction. The "pflege-bahr" brings high administrative costs and little security, said their negotiator karl lauterbach. "If we don’t see any movement on this today, and the interests of those who need care and those who provide it are less important than the interests of the capital market and the insurance industry, then we will not reach an agreement," he said.
"There is no justification for a new attempt to put reserves on the capital market when we are currently seeing virtually no interest rates, when the capital markets are uncertain and when we need the money now."
Both sides agreed on the goal of quickly creating improvements for people in need of care and for those in need of care. A contribution rate increase of up to 0.5 percentage points is expected to bring in the necessary funds. According to negotiators, quality-of-care checks could be made less bureaucratic and the documentation burden on homes and services reduced. Spahn said: "we want to see some improvements, especially for people with dementia: to expand care services, to make sure that someone is there to take a walk, simply to support the person in need of care."
Overall, the SPD is backing a tougher stance. "We must also achieve something in the health sector, the members gave us that at the federal party conference in leipzig," said lauterbach. "In particular, we will have to take another very hard line on the issue of citizen’s insurance."Spahn urged the social democrats to be "willing to compromise.
Bavaria’s health minister melanie huml (CSU) stressed that the CSU attaches great importance to preserving the bavarian healthcare system. She explained that today there is redistribution of funds from bavaria to other countries. Solidarity was important, but local structures had to be preserved.