[Handicapped and chronically ill patients: special effect on the affected]

The Bonn coalition government's determination to reduce incidental wage costs, to be realized by way of benefit cutbacks in the social insurance systems and social assistance domain as well as increasing the burdens on insurers through higher retention and cost sharing levels, has particularly serious implications for people with disabilities and chronic illness. Apart from facing numerous direct changes for the worse, they in addition are affected by restrictive regulations applicable generally, inter alia in the labour market or the health and pension insurance schemes; adverse effects, hence, accumulate and heighten out of proportion. The implications of the Bonn austerity legislation are dealt with in the present contribution on the examples of the health-care reform acts as well as the changes to the federal social assistance act, in as far as they affect the provision and care of disabled individuals in residential or community settings. Also dealt with are various problems arising due to the integration assistance/long-term care insurance overlap.