Collection of materials on the debate about a care "reform"

As it regularly does in crisis constellations, the ruling politicians are currently once again creating a threatening backdrop - "the" people in Germany are living beyond their means and need to pull themselves together - do more gainful employment, lower their expectations of their standard of living and make fewer demands on social provision. We are familiar with this pattern from the crises of the mid-1970s, the early 1980s and the early 2000s, and are now experiencing it again. This time there is also the fact that it has become obvious in so many respects that capitalist development has reached its limits and stands for the destruction of future prospects rather than the unfolding of opportunities. Climate catastrophe, global militarisation and the threat to care relationships and social networks are omnipresent and trigger both resignation and protest movements.

In this situation, daily, weekly and lifetime working hours are to be reduced and the need for care is to be defined even more than it is now as an individual risk rather than a social responsibility. It is becoming too expensive to provide social care, "we" can no longer afford it. What remains unsaid is that individually insured care would not be cheaper - unless the quality of care is to be reduced for those who cannot afford comprehensive provision. Opposing positions, such as those in favour of comprehensive long-term care insurance based on solidarity, hardly ever appear in the media. Yet they would put the current "half" care insurance, which only covers part of the costs, on a solid footing.

The impending "reform" process is also expected to happen very quickly. The federal-state commission that has been set up is expected to produce results by the end of the year. This reform is about how this society deals with people who are dependent on support and how it deals with those who provide this support. It is about quality of life on a very existential level. Accordingly, we should - must - be quick with our answers. All the more so because this fundamental decision in care is just one of many interlinked decisions that will determine our future prospects.

In order to gain a better understanding of the plans under discussion as a first step, we have compiled a collection of texts on the subject following a discussion in the Care Revolution network coordination group, which we are making available here as a PDF - in the hope that it will be useful for political intervention. In the document you will find

1) Development of long-term care insurance and the current status (basic information)

2) Attempt to categorise the changes in long-term care insurance (text Brief overview of the situation in care for the elderly. Created in 2023 for the discussion in the Care Revolution regional group Freiburg, figures updated)

3) Closure of care facilities (article Closure of care facilities. Not a by-product of a "wave of insolvencies", but system failure, published on the Care Revolution website in April 2025)

4) Overview of current care insurance reform proposals

Silvia Klein, Matthias Neumann