Linnemann does not rule out cuts to long-term care benefits in Germany

Minister open to benefit cuts

Federal Health Minister Carsten Linnemann (CDU) has not ruled out cutting benefits from the long-term care insurance (Pflegeversicherung). In an interview with Handelsblatt, published on 29 October, he said the scheme needs to save around 10%. He stopped short of a guarantee and told the paper he cannot promise that no benefits will be reduced at some point. He described a structural financing problem: the number of people in need of care rose from two million to more than six million within 20 years. Without reform, a deficit of around eight billion euros would have built up for 2027.

“Of course I cannot guarantee that there will be no benefit cuts at one point or another.”

Targeting care and holding co-payments

Linnemann wants care benefits to be steered more precisely toward those who really need them, and he said so in these terms. He is also ruling out a rise in co-payments for statutory health insurance members in 2027, after they were already increased this year. He was blunt about it:

“I'll be damned if I go near the co-payment issue again next year, after we already raised them this year.”

According to Linnemann, further increases would not be the right tool to limit statutory health insurance costs. He also sees a limit already reached for the surcharge on childless people. Linnemann has rejected a mandatory private long-term care insurance and wants private provision to be encouraged through tax relief instead.

Opposition to a cost cap

Linnemann is critical of an SPD demand to cap the out-of-pocket costs (Eigenanteile) that people pay in nursing homes. In his view, such a cap would not lower the actual costs of care. It could instead encourage further cost increases. He argues that the financing problem has to be addressed through targeted reform rather than by limiting what residents pay. The minister's position thus leaves the financing gap for 2027 to be closed by other means, which he has not yet specified.

Readers push back

In the FOCUS Online reader forum, most commenters oppose cuts to long-term care benefits and want savings made elsewhere first. They cite development cooperation, payments to international organisations, Ukraine aid and funding programmes abroad. Another group wants inefficient structures, faulty billing and possible misuse of contribution money examined before any cuts. Readers' suggestions would not close the financing gap by themselves, since the care insurance is financed mainly through contributions and is legally a separate system.

What comes next

No concrete benefit cuts have been decided yet. Linnemann said he first wants to wait for the proposals of the Finanzkommission Gesundheit before deciding whether more savings will be needed next year. His stated goal is stable statutory health insurance contributions beyond 2027, and he said contributions should fall again in the medium term. The 10% savings figure and the 2027 deficit both come from his own remarks in the Handelsblatt interview.