The Greens’ care policy spokesperson in the Bundestag, Simone Fischer, has sharply criticised the federal government’s plans for the care reform. The draft bill provides for abolishing the separate entitlement to care aids intended for consumption and moving the funding into a general relief budget, Fischer said in an interview with derwesten.de. “Necessary hygiene must not fail because of money,” she said there.
The interview was published as early as 26 October. The reform itself is still in flux: on Thursday, 5 November, Federal Health Minister Carsten Linnemann (CDU) announced improvements during the first reading in the Bundestag. “We want to improve the law,” he said according to taz and tagesschau.de. The adoption of the Care Reorganisation Act (PNOG) is scheduled for December, and most provisions are to enter into force on 1 January 2027.
What the reform specifically cuts
According to the draft currently available, the relief allowance of 131 euros in care level 1 is to be abolished and, for all other care levels, transferred into a so-called social space budget. This is to be usable exclusively for support in everyday life, not for services provided by outpatient care services. Respite care, with which relatives can pay for substitute help for hours or days and which currently covers up to 3,540 euros a year, is to be abolished as a separate benefit. Instead, according to tagesschau.de, a smaller bridging budget is planned for emergencies.
In addition, the requirements for classification into care levels 1 to 3 are to be raised, the contribution surcharge for childless people is to rise by 0.3 percentage points and the contribution assessment ceiling is to be raised by 300 euros. From 2028, free co-insurance for spouses is to be restricted.
Fischer sees no real progress in merging the aids into a budget. A higher monthly amount does not automatically mean more support if more has to be paid out of it at the same time, she said in the interview with derwesten.de. What is expenditure-neutral for the care insurance fund does not necessarily add up for the individual family. “Necessary hygiene products must not compete with urgently needed relief for the same money.”
Experts warned already about the referral draft
The German Society for General and Hospital Hygiene had already warned about risks to basic hygiene from the new budget competition in the referral draft, Fischer said. The Greens do not have a reliable impact assessment on additional infections, hospital stays and follow-up costs. “The federal government must provide information on this.” Nor could she give a figure on possible job losses.
According to Fischer, the Greens have introduced a counter-proposal in the Bundestag with the motion “Sustainable care reform – making social long-term care insurance fit for the future”. It provides for a flexibly usable relatives’ relief budget that bundles day, night, short-term and respite care as well as outreach counselling, plus crisis places and mobile teams. The Greens want to preserve respite care as a separate entitlement in the parliamentary process.
Fischer referred to a study by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and Prognos AG, which puts the care-related restrictions on employment for 2026 at arithmetically around 184,000 full-time positions. Women are particularly affected. “Care is a social task. Its burden must not land solely at families’ kitchen tables,” she said.
Linnemann wants to avoid “hard breaks”
In the Bundestag debate on 5 November, Linnemann justified the need for the reform with the deficit of the care insurance fund. Without the law, statutory long-term care insurance would “run into a deficit of around eight billion euros” next year, he said according to tagesschau.de. At the same time, he announced corrections so that there would be no “hard breaks” at the turn of the year.
There were also calls for changes from within the coalition. The Union’s health policy spokesperson, Simone Borchardt, said according to taz that they would “look at and readjust” respite care once again – especially with regard to families with severely disabled children. SPD MP Claudia Moll called for transitional periods so that facilities can adapt to new conditions.
Resistance comes from consumer advocates. The German Foundation for Patient Protection called the draft, according to tagesschau.de, “the biggest sham package since the existence of long-term care insurance”. The Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband demanded that the cuts to the relief allowance and to respite care be withdrawn. “Anyone who saves on home care is sawing off the branch on which the care system sits,” warned board chair Katja Kipping.
Editor’s note: Whether and to what extent the announced improvements affect the entitlement to consumable care aids is not clear from the available sources. The Bundestag is to vote on the law in December.
