CDU on health and care

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for a tax on sugary drinks based on their sugar content. It also calls for transparent food labeling and, at the EU level, a science-based Nutri-Score.

The CDU wants a tax on sweet drinks. The more sugar a drink has, the higher the tax. The federal government should introduce this tax. Food labels should clearly show how healthy a product is.

The tax rate is to depend on the share of free sugar in the drink. The Nutri-Score is a color-coded nutrition label on packaging. At the European level, the CDU also wants common labels that show the sustainability and climate neutrality of foods and their producers.

The CDU wants to keep medical care close to home in cities and rural areas, relying on independent, self-employed practices. Cooperation, regional health centers and digital services are meant to close gaps, especially in the countryside.

The CDU wants everyone to have a doctor nearby. This matters most in rural areas. Doctors should be able to work together more easily. There should be health centers in areas with few doctors. Online doctor visits should also become more common.

Obstacles to shared practice models are to be removed, and regional health centers are to combine emergency, inpatient and outpatient care in underserved areas. The party wants to examine community nurses and health navigators, a matching platform for doctors and practices, and further incentives for working in rural areas. Online consultations and IT infrastructure are to be expanded. The state's Versorgungssicherungsfonds (care security fund) is to finance pilot projects. Self-governing bodies in health care are to be involved and red tape reduced.

The CDU wants to fund hospitals better: alongside per-case flat rates there is to be a base payment for standby costs, and the federal government is to contribute to investments. A commission of inquiry in the state parliament is to deliberate by consensus on the future of the hospital landscape.

Hospitals should get enough money. Today they are paid per treatment. The CDU also wants a fixed base amount. The federal government should pay more for buildings and equipment too. A group in the state parliament should discuss the future of hospitals.

The base payment is meant to cover what hospitals spend on keeping acute care available, including staff. The platform demands full compensation for hospitals and university hospitals for the financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The commission of inquiry on the future of medical care is to clarify how planning and funding can secure needs-based care at all times. Hospital policy is to be guided by need, quality and accessibility, with close links between outpatient and inpatient services.

The CDU wants to keep modernizing the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) and carry out the UKSH future pact. The hospital is to work more closely with smaller hospitals. The party also wants the Master Plan for Medical Studies 2020 implemented quickly.

The UKSH is the big university hospital in the state. The CDU wants to keep modernizing it. It should work more closely with small hospitals. Medical training should also get better. More young doctors should stay in the state.

Patient care, research and teaching at the UKSH are to be tied together more firmly. As a partner for small and mid-sized hospitals, the UKSH is meant to secure care across the whole state. For students who later want to work in rural areas, the CDU plans adjusted incentives and state scholarships. Newly licensed doctors are to be encouraged to stay in the state. The Master Plan for Medical Studies 2020 is meant to restructure training and make it more interdisciplinary.

The CDU wants to expand preventive health services, with particular attention to mental health. Awareness work in schools and workplaces is meant to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness. According to the platform, prevention pays off many times over and eases the burden on social insurance systems.

The CDU wants more services that keep people healthy. Mental health matters most to the party here. People should be able to talk openly about mental illness. Schools and workplaces should inform people about it. Help and therapy should be available everywhere in the state.

Psychosocial support and therapy are to be within reach across the whole state. For children of mentally ill parents, the CDU wants statewide support structures and better coordination between the health system and youth services. Counseling services and self-help groups are to be strengthened, and digital tools such as apps and online courses promoted as a supplement. Information is to be offered more often in plain language, in accessible formats and in foreign languages. Workplace health management is to become a fixed part of prevention, and more people should use preventive checkups. The high participation in children's screening exams (U-Untersuchungen) is to be maintained, and vaccination education stepped up.

The CDU wants to expand addiction counseling and provide additional money for prevention. It will not tolerate open drug scenes and plans to tackle them together with drug counseling services, social organizations and the police. Municipalities are to remain free to set up supervised drug consumption rooms.

The CDU wants more counseling for people with addictions. Waiting times should get shorter. The party will not accept open drug scenes. Police and counseling services should work together there. Cities may still set up rooms for supervised drug use.

Drug policy is to keep resting on prevention, treatment, harm reduction and law enforcement. More counseling is meant to cut waiting times and also cover newer addictions such as media, online and gaming addiction. The CDU sees drug consumption rooms as a possible part of an overall strategy; a state ordinance is to keep allowing them, accompanied by scientific evaluation. Under the platform, prevention funds may not be used to build or run such rooms. More education is planned on media dependency, eating disorders and gambling addiction, including for parents.

The CDU rejects the legalization of drugs, citing health risks and long-term effects. If the federal government legalizes cannabis anyway, the party wants tight controls on sales in the state and scientific monitoring. Places frequented by many children and young people are to be drug-free and checked more closely.

The CDU does not want drugs to be made legal. It says drugs harm people's health. The federal government may allow cannabis anyway. Then the CDU wants strict checks on sales in the state. Children and teenagers should be better protected from drugs.

The stricter checks are also to cover sales of alcohol, tobacco and e-hookahs to minors. Children and young people are to be protected from risky use and from developing addictions. At the federal level, the CDU wants strict regulation of chemical substances that are often used as knockout drops and can currently be bought legally. The platform names listing them under the Betäubungsmittelgesetz (Narcotics Act) as one possible route.

As a lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDU wants to build up reserves of medical goods and staff for emergencies. The public health service is to be better equipped, and pandemic plans updated and rehearsed regularly. The party also wants vaccination rates to be as high as possible.

The CDU wants to learn from the COVID years. There should be stocks of medicine and protective gear. Public health offices should get more staff and better technology. Pandemic plans should be practiced regularly. Many people should get vaccinated.

Hospitals and doctors' offices are to have reserve capacity, protective equipment, medicines, medical aids and staff on hand for emergencies, funded including follow-up costs. The public health service is to be adequately provided with staff, equipment and uniform digital standards. The CDU wants to revise pandemic plans with advice from scientists and practitioners. In public contracts, availability and quality are to count alongside price. The regional health industry and medical research are to be supported; the platform sees vaccination as the key route to lasting protection.

The CDU wants to create more university places for midwives so that obstetric care and prenatal and postnatal support are available everywhere in the state. It also pushes for appropriate pay and reliable conditions for midwives.

The CDU wants more study places for midwives. Midwives help before, during and after birth. There should be enough midwives everywhere in the state. They should be paid properly.

The party aims for statewide coverage of obstetric care and of support before and after birth. According to the platform, cross-border cooperation can help in expanding study capacity. Both self-employed and hospital-based midwives are to be secured through sustainable solutions on pay and working conditions.

The CDU wants to expand outpatient care, counseling, and short-term and day care so that people can be cared for at home longer. Family caregivers are to be relieved and better covered in terms of pensions. Combining caregiving and a job is to become easier.

Many people are cared for at home by their family. The CDU wants more local help and advice for this. There should be more places for short-term care and day care. People who care for relatives should not become poor because of it. Caregiving and work should fit together better.

Care and counseling services are to be close to where people live. For short-term care, the CDU plans better conditions and incentives and the introduction of stand-alone short-term care facilities; the same goes for day and night care. Caregivers are to be better off financially and in their pension entitlements so that caregiving does not lead to poverty. Counseling for family caregivers and for people with dementia is to be expanded. The party wants to involve municipalities more closely in building up local structures.

The CDU wants to make nursing and care professions more attractive to ease the shortage of skilled workers. In its view this includes appropriate pay, more training places and programs for people returning to the profession. Foreign qualifications are to be recognized with little red tape and trainees recruited abroad.

There are not enough skilled care workers. The CDU wants to make care jobs more attractive. Pay should match the hard work. There should be more training places. People from other countries should also be won for care work.

Pay is meant to reflect the demanding nature of the work. Plans include return-to-work programs, technical assistance and support systems, and more training places in nursing and elder care. Foreign professional qualifications are to be recognized without heavy bureaucracy, and the party wants to recruit trainees from abroad in a targeted way. Training is to take place close to home; where demand exists, additional nursing schools are to be set up.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for further development of long-term care insurance. The share that people in need of care pay themselves is to stay stable and limited so that care does not lead to poverty in old age. It also calls for more statutory minimum staffing levels in residential elder care.

Care in a nursing home costs a lot of money. People pay part of it themselves. The CDU wants this part to stop rising. No one should become poor in old age because of care. Nursing homes should have fixed rules for enough staff.

The platform notes that much has already happened in long-term care insurance in recent years but sees further need. In residential elder care, the CDU wants additional statutory minimums and a uniform nationwide method for calculating staffing needs. High quality standards in nursing homes are to remain secured.

The CDU wants to expand hospice care in the state, both inpatient and at home. Palliative care is to be strengthened as well. People should be able to experience the end of life with dignity and with as little pain as possible.

The CDU wants more hospices and more hospice care at home. A hospice looks after people at the end of their lives. Palliative care should also get stronger. It eases pain for very sick people. Dying people should be able to live with dignity.

According to the platform, people should be able to spend the last stage of life in dignified surroundings. In the CDU's view, this includes avoiding pain and suffering as far as possible. The expansion covers hospices as well as outpatient support.