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Care costs in the north are exploding: Hamburg leads with 3,179 euros!
In Hamburg, care costs in homes will rise to 3,179 euros per month as of July 2025. The article highlights regional differences and calls for reforms.
Care costs in the north are exploding: Hamburg leads with 3,179 euros!
In northern Germany, nursing home care costs have risen significantly in recent years. According to reports from NDR, Tagesschau and AOK, those in need of care and their relatives now have to dig deeper into their pockets to receive the necessary support. In particular, this development does not hide the challenges that many families are faced with.
In Hamburg, the monthly personal contribution has been a whopping 3,179 euros since July 1, 2025, which corresponds to an increase of 322 euros compared to the previous year, where it was 2,857 euros. This puts Hamburg well above the national average of 3,108 euros. The other northern German federal states also recorded significant increases: In Schleswig-Holstein, those in need of care have to expect a contribution of 2,912 euros (previous year: 2,647 euros), while in Lower Saxony the own contributions are 2,785 euros - an increase of 257 euros compared to the previous year. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has an own contribution of 2,752 euros, which also represents an upward trend.
The highest and lowest costs at a glance
It's exciting to look at the nationwide differences: Bremen tops the list when it comes to the highest care costs, with a monthly price of 3,449 euros. In contrast, Saxony-Anhalt has the lowest monthly costs at just 2,595 euros. The personal contributions vary greatly, depending on the length of stay in the home. If you're lucky, relief surcharges can reduce costs over the years.
The main reason for this constant increase is the rising personnel costs, while nursing care insurance hardly covers these costs. Experts and nursing associations are therefore calling for reforms to improve the situation for those in need of care. As the Tagesschau reports, personal contributions increased by an average of around 300 euros last year. This is also reflected in the numbers: The average personal contribution for the first year of the home stay was 2,687 euros in 2024 and rose to 2,984 euros in 2025. Tagesschau
The financial burden and reforms
The AOK supplements this information and sheds light on the current financial burden on those in need of care in 2023. This has increased by 19.2 percent compared to 2022, which represents a crucial burden for many. Great: Nursing care insurance reimburses an average of 569 euros per month, but pensions and your own savings are often heavily strained. On average, residents pay 874 euros for care, 909 euros for accommodation and meals and 484 euros for investments.
The political discussion about whether the states should bear the costs is becoming increasingly louder. Ulrike Elsner, the chairwoman of the Association of Substitute Insurance Funds, has already demanded that the parties keep care affordable before the federal election. A look at the numbers shows that the federal states only made 876 million euros available for care facilities in 2022, while those in need of care themselves had to pay an incredible 4.4 billion euros.
The increase in the number of people in need of care in Germany represents an additional challenge: at the end of 2023, a total of almost 5.7 million people were in need of care. This shows how important it is to improve both the infrastructure and the financial framework through reforms. Measures that are already urgently needed due to the need for care of more than 90 percent of those affected who are cared for at home.