Old people for export

Germany: deportation of the elderly?

Ekaterina Zabrodina, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 10.01.2013

Germans are increasingly sending their elderly parents to nursing homes outside the country. First of all, to Eastern Europe. Some call this practice "inhuman deportation", others – a forced measure.

According to experts of the Social Union of Germany (this organization deals with legal issues of compliance with social guarantees in the country), many citizens were simply unable to pay for their accommodation in nursing homes in Germany. According to the Federal Statistical Bureau, this is 400 thousand old people, and every year there are more of them by 5%. And this is in the most prosperous of the EU countries.

In 2011 alone, 7 thousand German pensioners lived in nursing homes in Hungary. There are already 3 thousand of them in the Czech Republic, and more than 600 in Slovakia. Old people from Germany are moving to Spain, Greece, as well as outside the EU – to Ukraine and even to distant Thailand. There they receive proper care and relatively cheap medical care, while at home they cannot afford insurance. The Social Union of Germany recognizes: this is a "wake-up call".

Very often, German private companies or nursing homes with partners abroad are engaged in the selection of such institutions for elderly clients. The old people themselves admit that they leave with great reluctance, although they have no other way out. At the same time, they do not complain about the quality of service.

However, state medical insurance companies operating in the EU do not yet have the right to conclude agreements with foreign shelters for the elderly.

Meanwhile, the aging of the population is a serious problem faced by all EU countries. The alarm is also being sounded in Britain. According to local media, old people are often forced to sell real estate to pay for medical expenses.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.01.2013