Long-Term Care Insurance : Germany

Long-term care insurance, which was introduced on 1 January 1995, supplements the existing social safety net in the event that a person requires long-term care. This insurance is compulsory: Every person is insured through his or her statutory or private health insurance fund against the financial burden of long-term home or institutional care. Long-term care insurance contributions are shared by employees and employers; as a consequence of this arrangement, employees in most of the federal states have relinquished one paid legal holiday per year. Children who are still entitled to maintenance and spouses with very low incomes or no income at all are insured through the statutory insurance funds at no charge within the framework of the family insurance plan.