From the parliamentary group „the left ones“ in the Bundestag much criticism comes after inquiry, how many first applications for care achievements in Germany by the care insurance companies were rejected. According to the study, in 2019 benefits were not approved in 16 percent of cases. 1.21 million applications were submitted. According to the German government, the picture in 2018 was more or less the same. Of the 1.22 million initial applications submitted, 15.2 percent were also rejected, i.e. approximately one in six nursing care benefits. The Federal Ministry of Health does not yet have any figures for 2020 and thus no rejection rate. In 2019, however, in 142,000 cases, those in need of care and/or their relatives defended themselves against rejections by the care insurance funds with a so-called contradictory expert opinion. A good quarter of all refusals were thus contradicted. 26.8 percent of them were successful and were able to pay for their care services after the care assessment. In 2018, the success rate of 137,000 objections was even slightly higher at 28.3 percent. Sabine Zimmerman, social expert of the left and chairwoman of the Bundestag’s Family Committee, recently explained that she accuses the nursing care insurance funds of cutting costs by refusing to pay. For people in need of care and their relatives, in many cases the refusals cannot be understood because the people concerned are then left without care services and because this also causes immense follow-up costs. Often then due to missing achievements from easy cases of care would become heavy, criticized the politician. Socially unfairly it is besides that many humans often over decades into the care cashes deposited and at the end no achievements received, if they were urgently needed.
Source: Ärzteblatt