The German Long-Term Care Insurance Program: Evolution and Recent Developments.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Since 1995, Germany has operated one of the longest-running public programs providing universal support for the cost of long term services and supports (LTSS). Its self-funding, social insurance approach provides basic supports to nearly all Germans. We discuss its design and development, including recent reforms expanding the program and ensuring its ongoing sustainability. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The study reviews legislative and programmatic changes, using program data, as well as legislative documents and program reports. RESULTS: The program is widely accepted among citizens and has achieved many of its original goals: ensuring access to LTSS and reducing reliance on the locally-funded safety-net social assistance program, which can be used to cover nursing home costs. It also strengthened the LTSS provider infrastructure and expanded access to home care. Recent reforms have addressed some of the program's key issues: the benefit's decreasing value, the eligibility and benefit structure that largely excluded cognitive impairment, and the program's longer-term financial sustainability-particularly its ability to sustain newly expanded benefits, which provide stronger protections to caregivers, index-link benefits, and more systematically incorporate cognitive impairment via a new assessment system. It has addressed financing issues by increasing premiums, introducing subsidies for the purchase of private insurance, and creating a "demographic reserve fund." DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: The reforms constitute a significant strengthening of the program, remarkable in an era of retrenchment. Overall, the program provides evidence for the financial viability of a social insurance model, although longer-term challenges may yet arise.

European long-term care programs: lessons for community living assistance services and supports?

OBJECTIVE: To uncover lessons from abroad for Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS), a federally run voluntary public long-term care (LTC) insurance program created under the Accountable Care Act of 2010. DATA SOURCES: Program administrators and policy researchers from Austria, England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. STUDY DESIGN: Qualitative methods focused on key parameters of cash for care: how programs set benefit levels; project expenditures; control administrative costs; regulate the use of benefits; and protect workers. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: Structured discussions were conducted during an international conference of LTC experts, followed by personal meetings and individual correspondence. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Germany's self-financing mandate and tight targeting of benefits have resulted in a solvent program with low premiums. Black markets for care are likely in the absence of regulation; France addresses this via a unique system ensuing legal payment of workers. CONCLUSIONS: Programs in the five countries studied have lessons, both positive and negative, relevant to CLASS design.