Overview
- The federal cabinet approved Health Minister Carsten Linnemann’s Pflegereform draft on Wednesday, putting the bill into the legislative process and endorsing near-term measures to close multi‑billion euro shortfalls in the Pflegeversicherung.
- Immediate finance steps agreed in the draft include a 0.3 percentage‑point rise in the childless contribution surcharge to 0.9% from 1 January 2027 and a €300 monthly increase in the contribution assessment ceiling, with other changes aimed at slowing projected deficits.
- Key technical redesigns in the draft would replace care cash (Pflegegeld) with a monthly Entlastungsbudget that also must cover consumable care aids, introduce a half‑payment for some new cases in the first three months, and shift annual Ersatzpflege funds into monthly budgets, all of which could reduce usable support for some families.
- The reform remains politically contested: the SPD has rejected a pure savings package and demands a Pflegedeckel and contributions from private insurers while the CDU says those transfers face legal limits, so unresolved disputes will be examined by a new expert commission due to start work this autumn and winter.
- Parallel pension and benefit changes create concrete short‑term effects for people: the government defends wage‑linked pension indexation, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil presses to broaden statutory coverage to self‑employed and officials, and a separate law will remove Krankengeld entitlement for many with a part‑pension above two‑thirds from 1 January 2027, forcing individuals to decide before 31 December 2026 whether to lower their part‑pension to retain sick‑pay protection.