The German Hospice Trust says dementia patients and their overstretched caregivers will gain little from Health Minister Daniel Bahr's cabinet-approved plan to boost financing.

From January next year, the cabinet plans a 0.1 percent increase in compulsory payroll contributions made for statutory nursing-care within Germany's social insurance set-up.

Introduced in 1995 and based on the principle of providing outpatient care at home, ahead of stationary hospitalization, nursing care insurance now spans 69.5 million residents. If incapacitated, they can apply for funding so relatives, care-givers or local service firms can nurse them. Funding, however, hinges of the severity within a three-tier scale.

Current contributions, made jointly by workers and their employers, amount to 1.95 percent of gross pay, with a higher 2.2 percent for those employees who are childless.

Ahead of cabinet's adoption, Bahr told German NDR public radio on Wednesday that 500,000 persons suffering dementia within Germany would benefit.

"What we provide will for the first time consider dementia," he said.

Bahr's plan will also enable patients to share accommodation and jointly hire qualified caregivers; require health funds to run a complaints procedure, and provide incentives for doctors and dentists to make home visits.

Hospice advocates highlight legalities

Hospice trust spokesman, Eugen Brysch told the Neuen Osnabrücker newspaper that Bahr's reform lacked an essential element – a new legal definition of nursing care neediness.

Similarly, the head of Germany's GKV federation of statutory health funds, Gernot Kiefer told the Passauer Neuen Presse newspaper that the federal government "must decide whether it wants to implement a new nursing-care definition."

Disputes between patients and health funds over funding entitlements often end up before Germany's social courts.

The GKV also wants higher incentives for commercial insurers which currently provide nursing care policies for an additional 9.4 million residents that make up part of Germany's demographically aging population of 82 million.

An expert commission is currently deliberating on how to define the level of neediness and demands for greater emphasis on dementia when assessors formally examine sufferers.

ipj/mz (Reuters, dapd, kna, dpa)