Bundesgesundheitsministerin Nina Warken is calling for a billion-dollar sum from the federal budget to stabilize the nursing insurance, which is in acute financial distress. Warken, speaking to the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” noted that the federal government owes the nursing insurance over five billion euros for pandemic-related expenses, such as testing or the nursing protection shield that saved many facilities from closure. She emphasized the need for an adjustment and urged discussions on this matter. Warken pointed out that these tasks are of a societal nature and that there should be no taboos when it comes to stabilizing nursing finances in the short term. The minister also highlighted the urgent problems in nursing insurance and emphasized the need to gain time for necessary fundamental reforms. She expressed confidence that the coalition would find a solution and stressed that it is about a comprehensive package, not a single demand.
The proposal for settling the pandemic debts was suggested during the coalition negotiations between the Union and the SPD by the Health Working Group. However, it was later removed from the final version. Experts anticipate a deficit of up to 5.8 billion euros in the nursing insurance for the current year.
Warken aims to prevent or at least mitigate an increase in contribution rates in the statutory health insurance with a short-term stabilization package. She emphasized the need for a comprehensive package to avoid contribution rate hikes, which will be achieved through consensus with the entire government. She described the situation of health insurance providers as dramatic and stressed the urgent need to establish the commission for sustainable financing of health insurance as agreed in the coalition agreement, which is expected to deliver results in two years. However, she clarified that they cannot wait until the commission’s findings are presented in 2027.
As a component of the package, Warken discussed the possibility of additional billion-dollar tax funds for health insurance providers. She mentioned the issue of statutory contributions paid by the Job Centers for beneficiaries of citizen’s income. She highlighted the discrepancy and stated that they will discuss it. According to calculations by health insurance providers, the federal government would need to transfer an additional ten billion euros to cover the costs of citizen’s income recipients. This adjustment was proposed by the Health Working Group during the coalition negotiations but was later removed from the final version.