The German Social Long-Term Care Insurance: Structure and Reform Options

Melanie Arntz, Ralf Sacchetto (), Alexander Spermann, Susanne Steffes and Sarah Widmaier ()
Additional contact information
Ralf Sacchetto: ZEW Mannheim
Sarah Widmaier: ZEW Mannheim

No 2625, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Regarding social needs in Germany long-term care is an important issue due to an ageing population. Shrinking social networks are leading to a greater need for a public long-term care system. In 1995 the social long-term care insurance was introduced in Germany. In recent years some drawbacks of the social long-term care insurance structure turned out to be in need of reform: While health insurance is a fully comprehensive system, long-term care insurance only provides limited cover. Therefore, insurance funds have an incentive to shift some services from health care to long-term care insurance. Additionally, there is no free competition on the long-term care market because care packages included in the in-kind transfers are negotiated (with respect to services and prices) between insurance funds and professional care providers. Finally, the financial situation of the German social long-term care insurance is tight. While in the first years after introduction the net results of revenues and expenditures were positive they have been negative since 1999 which is due to an increasing number of benefit recipients. Therefore, we discuss several reform options which have been proposed in order to overcome the financial and structural problems. Suggestions for the income side include the introduction of fixed premiums, a fully funded system, a private insurance, or a citizens’ insurance. The introduction of individual budgets is the most popular option for the outcome side. A social experiment is under way in order to evaluate the impact of so-called matching transfers.

Keywords: long-term care; cash transfers; in-kind transfers; social experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2007-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-hea and nep-ias
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: The German social long-term care insurance - structure and reform options (2006)
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