Nursing recourse

The care of recourse referred to in Austria in the case of subsidized long-term care of a person recourse ( recourse ) of the federal states on the personal assets of the person concerned and his or her family. Section 330a of the ASVG abolished the nursing recourse nationwide with effect from January 1, 2018. The income that the federal states are losing through the ban on nursing recourse has since been made available from the general federal budget in the amount of 100 million euros annually and allocated to the federal states from the nursing fund based on a key determined for the respective calendar year (Section 330b ASVG).

German social authorities, on the other hand, can take recourse to maintenance if parents in need of care have a maintenance claim against their children according to civil law for the time for which care services are provided ( Section 94 SGB XII).

The political decision

At the end of June 2017, the MPs of the following parties decided to abolish the care regress: Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), The Greens - The Green Alternative (GREEN) and the Stronach team . Only the MPs of NEOS - Das Neue Österreich and Liberales Forum voted against because the financing was not clarified.

Social spokesman Gerald Loacker (NEOS) calculated on July 3, 2017, in contrast to the 100 million euros mentioned by the government, with 1.2 billion euros in additional costs and that the end of the nursing regress must take place within the framework of an overall reform of nursing . Probably on July 19, 2017, Finance Minister Hans Jörg Schelling stated on Radio Vorarlberg that it had been a "serious mistake" by Social Affairs Minister Alois Stöger and Federal Chancellor Christian Kern to abolish the care recourse without detailed figures, such as follow-up costs.

Financial needs

The originally mentioned financing requirement of 100 million euros arose from costs mentioned by the federal states ( transparency database ) of 70 million euros per year, a sum which the ministry rounded up to 100 million. Thomas Weninger, General Secretary of the Austrian Association of Cities , announced in December 2017 that, according to estimates of the additional costs of individual cities, extrapolated to the whole of Austria, a loss of over 500 million euros could be expected.

Individual federal states

Upper Austria

Richard Held, office manager of Social Councilor Birgit Gerstorfer (SPÖ), said in mid-October 2017 that there were isolated reports from homes of an increase. There are currently 250 to 350 free beds in reserve in Upper Austria. If there is an increase, this reserve would be sufficient to be able to take “further measures in good time”. It simmers tremendously. said Upper Austria's governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) on the nursing regress at a background discussion on the coalition negotiations with the federal government in Vienna at the beginning of December 2017 . He doesn't understand why this question has still not been resolved. Time is of the essence, the countries now have to budget the costs for 2018. In the course of the abolition, the federal government claimed that the total costs would amount to around 100 million euros. In Upper Austria alone, however, more than 70 million euros are missing.

Styria

On August 1, 2011, the Styrian state government Voves II reintroduced the nursing regress. Children and parents of residents in nursing homes had to make a contribution to care depending on their net income if the income (earnings, pension and care allowance) or assets of the person being cared for were insufficient to finance the home stay. These clawbacks ranged from 4 to 10 percent of children's income and 9 to 15 percent for parents. This procedure, which is unique in Austria, was intended to relieve the state budget and met with broad rejection. However, the regulation was confirmed by the highest court. However, this affected all nursing homes that were financed by the state, not just those of the KAGes . The recourse was abolished on July 1, 2014.

Tyrol

There are around 6,000 care places in the state of Tyrol in 2017 , a fifth of them in Innsbruck . The managing director Hubert Innerebner of Innsbrucker Sozialedienste, which operates nine nursing homes in Innsbruck with the Pradl dormitory opened in 2017 , assumes that people who were previously hardly interested in a home place for economic reasons now feel inclined to look for one Apply for home place. Thus, of course, the demand increases. And further: there are too few trained nursing staff and that will not change in the future either.

Vorarlberg

In the case of donations made before the donor begins their stay at home, the donee must pay four percent of the market value of the property annually as a contribution to the nursing home costs. Vorarlberg has the longest recourse period in Austria at 10 years. Self-earned income and assets of the relatives of nursing home residents remain unaffected.

Governor Markus Wallner (ÖVP) rejects the counter-financing inheritance tax. Erwin Mohr , former mayor of Wolfurt and active at the Seniors' Platform Bodensee, pointed out that more old people would then switch from 24-hour care to nursing homes , because the financial burden for the families would then be lower.

In 2017, around 2,400 nursing home places are available in Vorarlberg, and another 125 are currently planned by 2025, said Social State Councilor Katharina Wiesflecker (GREEN), and regrets that the National Council has not given any thought to the dynamics. According to an invoice by the Ministry of Social Affairs , an additional annual need of 10% in care home places must be expected without a care recourse. Furthermore, around a third of the nursing home residents in Vorarlberg are so-called self-payers, who would then have to be legally equated, and thus only have to pay 80 percent of their income, which results in further government funding requirements. Furthermore, 24-hour care would be the most expensive option. Wiesflecker reckons that with 100 million euros in financial compensation from the federal government to the states, for Vorarlberg, according to the population key, 4.41 million euros would have to be paid, while 36 million euros should be assumed as additional financial requirements.