Why Germany's long-term nurse care insurance is vital to the social welfare system

Not to be confused with regular health insurance, long-term nurse care is an additional type of insurance that is provided alongside an individual's baseline health insurance obligations. It works similar to general health insurance in the way that employees and employers pay half the contribution each. However, whilst the contribution rate for nurse care insurance for those who are publicly insured is currently 3.05% and 3.3% for those without children, this rate has steadily increased since its introduction in 1995 at just 1%.

It should also be noted that members of the public health insurance scheme who are 23 or older who have no children pay a surcharge for the scheme, which does not exist for those who are privately insured. Similar to the way regular private health insurance works, contributions for those privately insured are determined by the level of risk assumed by the private health insurer and is dictated by factors such as age and health status.

Another exception to the standard contribution rate of long-term nurse care insurance is present in the federal state of Saxony. In Saxony, the day of penance and prayer has not been abolished as a public holiday. For this reason, employers were not obligated to pay half of the contribution rate that applied when the nurse care insurance was first introduced back in 1995. As a result, today employers pay 0.5 percent less of the nurse care insurance contribution and employees pay 0.5 percent more compared to the other federal states of Germany.

Still unsure about how long-term care nurse contributions work? Or what your responsibilities are as a publicly or privately insured employee to pay this form of German social insurance? Please get in touch with us today.