Möglichkeiten einer verfassungskonformen Reform der gesetzlichen Pflegeversicherung

In their contribution Bernd Raffelhüschen and Jasmin Häcker point out that by now it is common knowledge that the German Long-term Care Insurance (LTCI) is in urgent need of a broad reform. Without any doubt, two fundamental mistakes have been made from the scretch: First, it was constructed as a pay-asyou- go scheme, despite of the demographic turbulence ahead. Secondly, contributions were drawn from the payroll although the risk of long-term care is definitely not correlated with personal income. Hence, it is essential to revise both mistakes and to bring about a new and sustainable insurance scheme. In their paper they suggest a reasonable transition from the current pay-as-you-go system to a fully funded strategy thereby accounting for the burden each generation is confronted with. With the help of generational accounting they demonstrate that the so called “Auslaufmodell” achieves a certain intergenerational balance. It is, however, crucial that the reform takes place instantly, otherwise it will never. This is due to the fact that only in the very near future people can not argue that they have paid their dues.