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Germany forcing elderly and infirm into care homes overseas
| Published: | 6 Oct at 6 PM |
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Tagged: USA, UK, Canada, Citizenship, Germany, Thailand, Euro, Pension Transfer, England, Health Insurance
Ailing pensioners in Germany are being dumped in Asian and Eastern European care homes and retirement villages in a push to cut spendin on spiralling heathcare costs.
A shocking report in an international newspaper highlights the plight of elderly and infirm German pensioners unable to afford high-cost private health insurance. The country’s heath care services for the elderly are equally unaffordable to those receiving a state pension, leading to thousands being shipped off to facilties in foreign lands.
The German economy is stuck in a demographic time bomb, with a good proportion of the population ageing and potentially needing full-time care in dedicated facilities. As a result, it’s considered likely that even more senior citizens will end their lives far from their country of birth.
Estimates suggest over seven thousand German pensioners were sent to retirement homes in Hungary last year, with another three thousand in the Czech Republic and at least 600 in Slovakian care facilties. A number of elderly retirees are also believed to have been relocated to Greece, the Ukraine and even Thailand and the Philippines.
The German government’s estimate of the numbers of senior citizens unable to afford retirement care in the home country runs at around 400,000 at the present time, with the number slated to increase over the next two decades. Social welfare advocates are up in arms and are attacking the programme as being a form of ‘inhumane deportation’.
One German Advisory group, Sozialverband Deutzschland (VDK) is protesting via its president Ulrike Mascher. During an interview with media representatives she insisted people who’d help built the country into what it now is cannot just be deported to unfamiliar cultures simply because they are old and ailing.
Head of the Alzheimer Society in Germany Sabine Jansen pointed out that those with dementia and Alzheimers would find it almost impossible to adjust to a completely new culture and language as they are living in the past times of their earlier memories. German social services are struggling to cope with a fast-ageing, declining population, but forcing their senior citizens out of their homes and land of birth seems drastic and inhumane.
A shocking report in an international newspaper highlights the plight of elderly and infirm German pensioners unable to afford high-cost private health insurance. The country’s heath care services for the elderly are equally unaffordable to those receiving a state pension, leading to thousands being shipped off to facilties in foreign lands.
The German economy is stuck in a demographic time bomb, with a good proportion of the population ageing and potentially needing full-time care in dedicated facilities. As a result, it’s considered likely that even more senior citizens will end their lives far from their country of birth.
Estimates suggest over seven thousand German pensioners were sent to retirement homes in Hungary last year, with another three thousand in the Czech Republic and at least 600 in Slovakian care facilties. A number of elderly retirees are also believed to have been relocated to Greece, the Ukraine and even Thailand and the Philippines.
The German government’s estimate of the numbers of senior citizens unable to afford retirement care in the home country runs at around 400,000 at the present time, with the number slated to increase over the next two decades. Social welfare advocates are up in arms and are attacking the programme as being a form of ‘inhumane deportation’.
One German Advisory group, Sozialverband Deutzschland (VDK) is protesting via its president Ulrike Mascher. During an interview with media representatives she insisted people who’d help built the country into what it now is cannot just be deported to unfamiliar cultures simply because they are old and ailing.
Head of the Alzheimer Society in Germany Sabine Jansen pointed out that those with dementia and Alzheimers would find it almost impossible to adjust to a completely new culture and language as they are living in the past times of their earlier memories. German social services are struggling to cope with a fast-ageing, declining population, but forcing their senior citizens out of their homes and land of birth seems drastic and inhumane.
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