Stephan Richter should actually pay his nurses more from Thursday. Even significantly more – sometimes up to 30 percent, says the managing director of Richterpflege, a family business with two old people’s homes, a partially inpatient facility and an outpatient care service from Giersleben in Saxony-Anhalt. In practice, however, this will probably not be possible. The reason: the refinancing has not yet been clarified. And Richter cannot advance the money. “It’s about a few hundred euros per employee,” he says.
The background is a law passed in great haste by the Union and the SPD shortly before the federal elections. Nursing homes and outpatient services must therefore pay their nursing staff the standard wage or a “customary local fee” from September 1st. In principle, the plan to ensure higher salaries in geriatric care met with a lot of approval – the profession should become more attractive. But there is a short-term and a longer-term problem. In the short term, nursing homes cannot simply pass on rising costs; they first have to negotiate this with nursing care insurance funds and social welfare offices. However, this is sometimes very bumpy, and until then they will have to bear all the additional costs. But it is also clear that the home places will become even more expensive in the end. Residents therefore have to pay more and, if necessary, apply for social assistance.
“1300 euros more, that’s unacceptable”
How much more expensive, Managing Director Richter cannot say with certainty to his residents and their families because of the pending agreement with the health insurance funds and the social welfare offices. But it boils down to the fact that in future they will have to pay around 3500 euros a month instead of 2200 euros. Richter himself is outraged: “1300 euros more, that’s unacceptable, you really have to say that,” he complains. The largest part is accounted for by rising personnel costs, plus inflation. Groceries, cleaning, electricity and gas – everything is becoming more expensive. As a result, between 30 and 40 percent of the residents in Richter’s facilities are already dependent on help from the social welfare office. There will soon be significantly more.
The example from Saxony-Anhalt is not the only example that shows what was already clear when the law was passed, but which the federal government preferred not to say at the time: there is a lack of solid financing for the higher nursing wages. How much more expensive it is now for residents, there is no nationwide data. The social association VdK expects 30 to 40 percent higher bills for those in need of care, some of whom would then have to pay up to 5,000 euros out of their own pockets. In Berlin, long-term care insurance funds and homes assume that the prices of non-tariff facilities will increase by an average of 20 percent simply because of the legally decreed wage increase.
How much the 819,000 residents are already paying for their place today is shown by data from the Association of Substitute Funds: On average, it was 2,200 euros a month in July, 75 euros more than a year ago – despite a new subsidy from long-term care insurance, which has been in effect since the beginning of the year. The costs are rising so much that for many of those affected it only slows down the additional burden. And the actual increase in costs was still to come in July.
