Demenzkranke und Pflegebedürftige in der Sozialen Pflegeversicherung – Ein intertemporaler Kostenvergleich

One major aspect of the recent reform of the German statutory long-term care insurance („Gesetz zur strukturellen Weiterentwicklung der Pflegeversicherung“) was the implementation of additional benefits for dementia patients. This reform was the outcome of a tedious debate concerning the question whether long-term care patients suffering from dementia were discriminated by the old regulations of the statutory long-term care insurance compared to non-dementia patients as benefits only applied to physical disabilities. Taking into account the differences in remaining life expectancy and costs of (different forms) of long-term care, this paper discloses the funding gaps of the two groups of benefit recipients. Using the concept of the absolute and relative equal burden, the paper analyzes the magnitude of the additional benefits equalizing relative and absolute costs in long-term care. Due to population aging and the resulting (financial) non-sustainability of the statutory long-term care insurance, the paper adopts a neutral expenditure approach by redistributing the existing transfers between these two groups thus making them equally well-off.