The deputy chairman of the GKV-Spitzenverband, Gernot Kiefer, criticizes the federal government’s planned care reform and warns of an opaque „patchwork quilt.“ He is concerned about the mandatory application of regulations on collective agreements and the remuneration agreement of the regions that would have to be observed under the new law. Nursing employees should organize themselves so that they can enforce their collective agreements themselves, he warns, although he is in favor of adequate and good pay for the nursing profession.
However, the announced pay increase combined with a simultaneous increase in personnel would lead to additional costs of 3 to 3.5 billion euros per year, which would not be sufficiently counter-financed. Kiefer stressed in a statement to the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ). However, to finance all this, a contribution rate increase from 3.05 percent (since 1.1.21) by 0.1 percentage points to 3.15 percent would be necessary. Ultimately, those in need of care would again bear 100 percent of the additional wage costs when the care reform is implemented.
The original working draft of the Federal Minister of Health and his ministry even provided a cap or limit on the co-payment, but this then turned out to be too expensive for the federal government. Kiefer, however, continues to adhere to a real cap so that the nursing care insurance system would not be burdened with an additional three billion euros in financing the subsidies of the nursing care insurance funds. At the same time, the 40 percent mark would be exceeded in social contributions by contributors, which would exceed the so-called social guarantee for non-wage costs. According to Kiefer, the federal states should not shirk their responsibility and pass on the costs to those in need of care.
Jens Spahn had proposed, for example, to continue to burden childless people with contribution surcharges, who since the beginning of the year already pay an increased contribution rate of +0.25 percent as a special feature, i.e., 3.30 percent if they are older than 23. Likewise, according to his idea, pension contributions could be paid from tax revenues in the future. Still, the GKV-Spitzenverband doubts this because the calculation is unlikely to work out over a longer period of time.
Source: www.gkv-spitzenverband.de