German Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) is calling for stronger tax incentives for private long-term care provision. “It must become more attractive to take out additional private long-term care insurance,” Warken said in an interview with the Funke media group’s newspapers. She proposes deducting the premiums paid as a provision expense from tax.
Currently, contributions to supplementary long-term care insurance can be deducted from tax up to an annual limit of 1,900 euros for employees and civil servants, and 2,800 euros for the self-employed. Warken emphasizes that private provision must become an important pillar of care financing in order to close the growing funding gap in the statutory long-term care insurance.
The minister made clear that the planned care reform is not about shifting the financial problems of care insurance onto cities and municipalities. The coalition has set improving care finances as one of its next major tasks.
Source: www.faz.net
