Is the state-subsidised Pflege-Bahr worth it?

Published premium examples for subsidised tariffs, monthly premium including the EUR 5 subsidy.

Pflege-Bahr is the German name for a subsidised daily care allowance (Pflegetagegeld): a fixed monthly amount paid once you are assessed as needing care, which you can spend as you like. The state adds EUR 5 a month if you pay at least EUR 10 yourself and the tariff meets certain minimum rules.

The provider must accept every adult who is a member of the statutory or private long-term care insurance in Germany (Pflegepflichtversicherung) and has not yet received care benefits. Health questions, surcharges and exclusions are not allowed. In return there is a waiting period of up to five years.

EUR 5 sounds generous, but the benefit is small. If you join at 40 or 50, you often get only the minimum. In a care home it covers about a sixth of the own share, and in the common care grades 2 and 3 far less.

Because everyone is accepted without checks, these tariffs insure many people with a high care risk. Consumer advice centres therefore expect sharper premium rises than in normal tariffs. On top of that, you keep paying while you are already receiving care.

If you have diabetes, a heart condition or a mental illness, Pflege-Bahr is often the only route to a daily care allowance. A normal tariff would refuse you because of the health questions.

If you are healthy, an unsubsidised tariff is usually better: more benefit per euro, real payouts in the lower care grades and often a premium waiver once you need care. You can also combine both if you want to take the subsidy as well.

You need to be covered by German long-term care insurance, which comes automatically with German statutory or private health insurance. If you are insured only through a foreign scheme, you cannot sign.

Before you sign, ask what happens to the contract if you later leave Germany. The premiums are lost if you cancel, so a policy you drop after a few years has cost you money and given nothing back.

If your pension and savings can pay for a care home for many years, a policy with EUR 600 benefit adds little.

If you have hardly any savings and would rely on social assistance for care costs in old age, you also gain little. The contract can be paused for up to three years in that case, but the benefit does not replace social assistance.