From September 2022, the nursing staff receives more pay, as 50 percent of the 1.2 million employees in this sector are still paid below the collectively agreed rate. The poor pay of nursing staff in inpatient facilities leads to a nursing shortage that is becoming increasingly significant.
For this reason, the German cabinet has prepared a draft bill on care reform, which is to be introduced as legislation in the Bundestag before the end of June this year. The new „nursing care package“ includes tariff payments and reductions in the co-payment for nursing care for nursing home residents, who are not to be overburdened any further. Supply contracts with care facilities are to be concluded only if collective agreements are adhered to. For nursing home stays, the new regulation means that in the first year, a reduction of five percent of the nursing costs is due, in the second 25 percent, in the third 45 percent and the fourth even 70 percent of the nursing costs, but not of the costs for accommodation, meals and other investments of the respective facility.
The extra costs of nursing care insurance are financed by an additional billion from the federal government and by increasing the nursing care contribution of the childless by 0.1 points from 3.3 to 3.4 percent of gross wages. In the future, the increased percentage will even be 0.35 percentage points.
At the moment, nursing care insurance only partially covers the costs of nursing care. Every nursing home resident pays an average of 2068 euros per month nationwide, which would then be reduced by assuming the pure costs of care.
The Care Reform Act also provides for the entitlement to short-term care to be increased and for one to ten days of transitional care to become necessary if care in the home environment or short-term care is impossible after a hospital stay.
Criticism of the care reform comes from several sides in different forms. Employers‘ associations and the Verdi trade union and Caritas, and the health insurance funds are disappointed with the draft law, especially since home care has not been considered. However, in outpatient care, the benefit amounts of the nursing care insurance will probably be increased by five percent.
Source: NTV.de