Reform long‑term care insurance – or face a financial crash

Employers’ President Dr Rainer Dulger on the reform plans for long‑term care insurance

Reform long‑term care insurance – or face a financial crash

Berlin, 5 June 2026. “More and more people in need of care, fewer and fewer contributors – without reform, long‑term care insurance is heading for a financial crash. The system needs a structural reorganisation. The aim must be to deploy resources precisely where they are truly needed, in order to secure quality and reliability in care for the long term.

It is therefore right to focus benefits more strongly on those who require care over a long period and with high intensity. Federal Minister Nina Warken is pointing in the right direction here.

However, closing funding gaps by introducing contribution liability for mini‑jobs and raising the contribution assessment ceiling is the wrong approach. This would impose an additional burden of around €2 billion on employers. Instead of making work even more expensive, further adjustments to benefits within long‑term care insurance are required.

Suspending the federal subsidy once again and instead drawing on the care reserve fund – which is intended to cushion future contribution burdens – is irresponsible towards younger generations. We need a binding sustainability mechanism that limits the growth of care benefits as ever more people in need of care are supported by ever fewer contributors. In addition, non‑insurance benefits must be consistently financed from tax revenues rather than continuing to place the burden on contributors.

The question now is whether the Federal Government has the courage to pursue genuine structural reform. Only in this way can we secure high‑quality care without driving contributions even higher.”