AfD on health and care

The AfD wants to prevent further contribution increases in health and long-term care insurance. The federal government is to pay in full for the coverage of Bürgergeld (citizen's income) recipients. In addition, the two insurance branches are to be merged and administrative costs cut.

The AfD wants to stop health and care insurance from getting more expensive. The state should pay the full insurance for people on Bürgergeld from taxes. Bürgergeld is basic income support. Health and care insurance should become one insurance. The administration should cost less.

The platform puts combined contributions for both branches at 21.1 to 21.7 percent and calls them roughly twice as high as in Austria or Switzerland. According to the platform, two thirds of the cost of covering Bürgergeld recipients is currently borne by contributors. Besides the merger, the AfD wants to simplify the self-governing bodies for panel doctors, hospitals, rehabilitation and care services, which it describes as highly fragmented.

The AfD wants to completely abolish per-case flat rates in hospitals and return to individually negotiated budgets. Budget caps on doctors' offices would end; the platform says these caps cause appointment shortages and long waits.

Hospitals today get a fixed sum for each case. The AfD wants to end these flat rates. Each hospital should negotiate its own budget. Doctors in offices should be paid for all treatments. The AfD says patients will then get appointments faster.

In the AfD's view, the DRG flat-rate system creates the wrong financial incentives and a lot of red tape, and the hospital reform does not fix this. In the medium term, hospitals would agree on budgets with the umbrella associations of the statutory health insurers at the state level. In outpatient care, doctors would no longer have to provide treatments without payment. To counter a rise in visits for trivial complaints, the platform proposes tiered bonus or refund schemes. The owner-run practice is to remain the backbone of care, and doctors settling in rural areas would get financial and organizational support.

The AfD wants to pay considerably more for care provided by relatives at home so that more families can afford it. For professional nursing it calls for uniform nationwide staffing rules set by law. It rejects nursing chambers.

Many people care for relatives at home. The AfD wants to give them much more money for this. A law should say how many nurses hospitals need. It should be the same all over Germany. The AfD does not want nursing chambers.

Family caregivers would get relief when they are ill or on vacation through better outpatient services and short-term inpatient options. The AfD expects fewer and shorter nursing home stays as a result, easing the burden on the long-term care insurance fund. Statutory staffing levels would apply to all areas where nursing is critical, and their funding would be secured. The platform rejects nursing chambers because it expects them to bring more red tape, state interference and mandatory dues.

The AfD wants a review of the COVID measures at every level, starting with a committee of inquiry in the Bundestag. In the platform's view, the measures harmed many people's health, social lives and finances.

The AfD wants to review the COVID rules. The Bundestag should set up a committee of inquiry. That is a group of lawmakers that investigates events. The AfD says the rules harmed many people. Those responsible should answer for it.

The platform cites the published RKI protocols as the trigger. Decision-makers would be held accountable where, according to the AfD, measures were driven by special interests and taken against scientific advice. People the party considers wrongly convicted would be rehabilitated and compensated. Laws and guidelines changed because of the pandemic would be reviewed and repealed where necessary.

The AfD demands a fundamental reform of how the World Health Organization is funded in order to end the influence of private donors. If that fails, Germany should withdraw. It rejects the pandemic treaty and the amended International Health Regulations.

The WHO is the World Health Organization. The AfD wants member countries to pay for most of it. Private donors should have no influence. If that does not work, Germany should leave. The AfD is also against the pandemic treaty.

The WHO budget would in future come mostly from member state contributions, which would require changes to the organization's structure and staffing. The AfD rejects the pandemic treaty planned for 2025 because, in its account, it would give the WHO far-reaching rights over states and allow intrusions into freedom and privacy. Germany should reject the International Health Regulations in their current form before March 31, 2025. According to the platform, health policy should remain a national task and not be left to the WHO or EU agencies.

The AfD wants to immediately roll back the legalization of cannabis outside medical use. It points to physical and mental harm, especially to the still-developing brains of young people.

Since 2024, cannabis has been partly legal for adults. The AfD wants to change that back. Cannabis should only be allowed as medicine. The AfD says cannabis harms health, especially for young people. It also wants more help for people with addiction.

According to the platform, cannabis can lower intelligence and trigger serious physical and psychological damage. Young people are said to be especially at risk because brain damage may be irreversible. In addition, the AfD supports more addiction psychiatry services so that people with drug dependence stay abstinent for good.

The AfD rejects every vaccine mandate and wants to scrap the measles vaccination requirement for children and teaching staff. It cites the right to self-determination and the constitutional right to physical integrity. People with vaccine injuries would get better care.

The AfD is against any duty to get vaccinated. Each person should decide about vaccines for themselves. The measles vaccine rule for children and teachers should end. People without vaccines should not be treated worse. People with vaccine injuries should get more help.

In the AfD's view, the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) was not neutral during the COVID period; vaccine recommendations should in future be reliably reviewed and weighed against risks. People who decline a vaccine should not be excluded or disadvantaged. Members of professions who, according to the platform, were pressured into COVID vaccination would receive support and immunity from prosecution. Occupational insurance associations would take over care for people with vaccine injuries, and eased burden-of-proof rules would make it simpler to establish such injuries.

The AfD rejects a central database that stores confidential patient data and links hospitals, practices and pharmacies. Instead, an emergency data set would be kept on the health insurance card. The platform argues that this data needs a very high level of protection.

The AfD does not want one big database for patient data. It says this data needs strong protection. Key data for emergencies should be on the insurance card. This includes a list of medicines.

The party rejects the Telematik-Infrastruktur, the network that connects hospitals, practices, psychotherapists and pharmacies to central data storage. It does support putting an emergency data set on the health insurance card. That set would include a medication plan and a living will. More broadly, the party wants less bureaucracy, deregulation, self-administration and personal responsibility in health care.

Medical staff from abroad would have to fully meet German standards in both skills and language, with language at level C1. The AfD also wants more university places in medicine and dentistry, with German citizens given priority.

Doctors and nurses from abroad should speak very good German. Their skills should match German standards. The AfD wants more places to study medicine. German applicants should get these places first.

The platform argues that language problems prevent trust and can cause misunderstandings during treatment. It therefore calls for language level C1, an advanced level. The number of university places in medicine and dentistry would be increased because the party sees a shortage. Applicants with German citizenship would get priority for these places.