Urgent Plea for Billion Dollar Funding: Health Minister Urges Federal Government
Federal Health Minister Requests One Billion Dollars from the Federal Government
Hey there! Let's chat about the latest in health insurance discussions in Germany.
The health minister is pressing hard for a significant financial injection from the federal government to avert or at least minimize potential hikes in health insurance contributions. She's made it clear that contributors should not be the first to bear the burden.
The new CDU health minister, Nina Warken, is aiming to prevent or at least lessen the impact of increasing health insurance contributions with an emergency package. "We're looking at a comprehensive plan to reduce contribution increases as much as possible. We'll work out the specifics in collaboration with the entire government," she stated to the German Press Agency.
She considers the situation of health insurance funds to be quite dire. Although the commission for sustainable financing of health insurance, agreed upon in the coalition agreement, needs to be established promptly, it's clear that "we can't wait until the commission's recommendations are presented in 2027."
As part of the package, Warken has proposed additional tax funds in the billions for health insurance funds. She's referring to the health insurance contributions that the federal government pays for job seekers. "The issue is clear: the contributions made by job centers aren't enough to cover their health expenses. There's a discrepancy here. We'll discuss this," she announced. According to calculations by health insurance funds, the federal government would need to pay around 10 billion euros more to actually cover the costs of job seekers.
Long-term Care Insurance Lacking Billions Too
Warken also demanded a pending billion-dollar contribution from the federal government to alleviate the financial stress on the long-term care insurance in the short term. "The federal government owes the long-term care insurance over 5 billion euros for expenses during the pandemic, such as tests or the care shield, which kept many facilities from closing," said Warken. "The long-term care insurance needs reimbursement for this," she emphasized. After all, these were expenses for society as a whole. "There should be no taboo subjects when it comes to short-term stabilization of long-term care financing," stressed Warken.
The minister underlined that "there are pressing problems" in the long-term care insurance. "We need to buy time to address the necessary foundational reforms in long-term care insurance," she explained. The federal-state working group for this will be established quickly by the coalition, but it will still take some time to present results. "Until then, urgent measures to stabilize long-term care financing are essential," said Warken.
"We need to discuss this together within the coalition," she said, referring to the coalition agreement that doesn't allocate funds from the federal budget for the nursing care insurance. "It's about a solution, a comprehensive package, not just a single demand," she emphasized. Experts anticipate a deficit of up to 5.8 billion euros in the nursing care insurance this year.
Both the proposed 10 billion from the federal government for the health insurance of unemployed citizens and the settlement of coronavirus debts were suggested by the health working group during coalition negotiations between the Union and the SPD. However, both items were removed from the final version.
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