FDP Saar: High Nursing Home Costs in Saarland Are the Result of Political Inaction
Regarding the once again high personal contributions for nursing home residents in Saarland, Dr. Helmut Isringhaus, health policy spokesperson of the FDP Saar, states:
„Saarland is once again among the top group in Germany regarding nursing home costs. Those who have to pay on average almost 3,700 euros per month in the first year in a nursing home face an existential burden. For many retirees and families, this is simply no longer manageable.”
The FDP Saar criticizes that the state government has been lamenting this development for years but takes too little countermeasures. Part of the costs arises from erroneous federal political decisions, especially concerning the financing of long-term care insurance. But the state also bears responsibility: investment costs and training costs continue to be passed on to those in need of care.
„Long-term care must not become a poverty risk or a creeping expropriation,“ says Isringhaus.
The rising personnel costs are not the problem but rather an expression of the necessary better pay in nursing care. The problem is that these cost increases are passed on almost unfiltered to the residents. Added to this are high costs for accommodation, meals, investments, and training. The personal contribution includes costs for care and support, accommodation and meals, investments, as well as training costs.
Therefore, the FDP Saar demands a nursing care cost plan for Saarland. Investment costs must be gradually taken over from the state budget. Training costs should not be charged on the nursing home bills of those in need of care. At the same time, there needs to be more transparency regarding the cost components of each facility.
„The state government must no longer just point to Berlin. Anyone who really wants to relieve those in need of care must act in Saarland. Investments in care facilities are the task of the state, not the nursing home residents,“ explains Isringhaus.
Isringhaus concludes: „Care policy must not start only when people have exhausted their savings and have to apply for care assistance. Saarland needs a strategy that relieves those in need of care, supports relatives, and makes costs transparent. Anything else is turning a blind eye at the expense of people in need of care.”
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