As Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) generated uncertainty with his hints at a comprehensive care reform during the TV debate on Sunday, new details have emerged. According to “Business Insider”, private care insurance companies, in which around 10% of the population is enrolled, are to help finance the statutory care insurance by contributing financially.
During the TV debate, the Chancellor referred to the concept by the awkward name “Solidaritätsverschränkung” (Solidarity Tangle). The background is that individuals with particularly high incomes can switch to the private care insurance system in Germany, financing their care costs through this system instead of the statutory insurance.
Under Scholz’s plan, a part of the funds from the private insurance companies is to flow to the statutory insurance funds, helping to finance the latter. A similar concept already exists in the health insurance system, where the statutory health insurance funds pay a risk structure adjustment to one another. If Scholz were to introduce a similar risk adjustment, known as “Solidaritätsverschränkung”, in the care sector, the private insurance companies would suddenly start contributing to the statutory funds. The exact amount of this contribution is not being disclosed by the SPD.
Scholz’s plan for “Solidaritätsverschränkung” is being criticized by the private health insurance (PKV) sector. The idea of “Solidaritätsverschränkung” is an “old, already failed recipe from the political mothbox”, as the PKV association stated in a response, reported by “Business Insider”. Moreover, it is deemed unconstitutional, as a government inquiry already showed in 2006.