– by Holger Hansen
Berlin (Reuters) – Employees and employers will be faced with an increase in social security contributions on July 1, which should bring annual additional income of around 6.6 billion euros for long-term care insurance.
This is what a draft law presented to Reuters on Friday by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) provides. The Greens promptly raised an objection and demanded that the federal government reimburse the long-term care insurance fund for non-insurance-related expenses. Criticism also came from the Confederation of Employers (BDA). “We’re now easily breaking the 40 percent mark for social security contributions,” said BDA chief executive Steffen Kampeter to Reuters. The statutory health insurance (GKV) and the Protestant Diakonie criticized that the increase was not enough. They also called for greater federal involvement.
According to the draft, the general contribution rate for care should increase by 0.35 points to 3.4 percent of gross wages. For employees without children, the total contribution increases even more to 4.0 percent, since the childless supplement is also to increase by 0.25 points to 0.6 percent. For parents, on the other hand, the contribution will be reduced by up to 0.6 percentage points from the second child onwards, depending on the number of children. This is intended to take into account a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court in April 2022 to give greater consideration to the effort involved in bringing up children.
GKV – FEDERAL AND COUNTRIES MUST PARTICIPATE MORE
According to the draft, the increase in the contribution rate by 0.35 points will bring the long-term care insurance funds additional income of 3.15 billion euros for the second half of 2023 and annual additional income of 6.6 billion euros from 2024. The money is used “to stabilize the financial situation of social long-term care insurance and to finance the adjustments in benefits provided for in this reform”.
In order to strengthen home care, the care allowance is to be increased by five percent in 2024. In view of wage-related increases in care allowances for outpatient care facilities, the outpatient benefits in kind would also be increased by five percent: “There should be an automatic, regular adjustment of the cash and benefits in kind in 2025 and 2028.”
The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband) explained that the amount of the adjustment to the benefit entitlements was “significantly behind the significant cost development”. The federal government and the states are not prepared to meet their financial obligations. “Obligations to society as a whole cannot only be imposed on those in need of care,” said the association. “What is a federal task must be financed by the federal government.” The Diakonie demanded: “In order not to further increase social security contributions, a subsidy from the federal budget is required.”
Green party leader Maria Klein-Schmeink sees finance minister Christian Lindner (FDP) as responsible. “That would avoid this significant jump in contributions to long-term care insurance,” she told the editorial network Germany. She called for the long-term care insurance fund to be reimbursed for pandemic-related costs and pension contributions for caring relatives: “We agreed that in the coalition agreement.”
With the increase, the sum of all social contributions for pension, health, unemployment and long-term care insurance rose to 40.8 percent from July and to over 41 percent for childless people. The economy had repeatedly pushed for a limit of 40 percent. Overall, the contributions in 2023 rose by 0.85 percentage points: At the beginning of the year, the additional contribution to health insurance was increased by 0.3 points and the contribution to unemployment insurance by 0.2 percentage points.
(Edited by Ralf Bode. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and the economy) or [email protected] (for companies and markets).)