FDP on health and care

The FDP wants family doctors and pediatricians to be patients' first point of contact. Hospitals are to specialize more, emergency care is to be better coordinated, and Germany is to be strengthened as a location for pharmaceuticals.

The FDP wants patients to see their family doctor first. For children it is the pediatrician. Hospitals should focus on certain treatments. Important medicines should be made in Germany and Europe again.

All health professions are to be paid in full and according to performance, and doctors are to treat patients without budget caps or instructions from third parties. An emergency care reform is to link hospitals, practices and ambulance services, and the divide between outpatient and inpatient care is to be reduced. On medicines, the FDP wants faster approvals, a review of benefit assessment and price negotiations, and the return of production of key drugs. Pharmacies are to be able to operate profitably.

The FDP wants to keep statutory and private health insurance side by side and rejects a single citizens' insurance. Spending by the statutory funds is not to grow faster than their revenue.

The FDP wants to keep public and private health insurance. It rejects one single insurance for everyone. Public insurers should not spend more than they take in. Some benefits should be dropped.

Insured people are to have more freedom to switch and choose in both systems. All benefit expansions of the past decade are to be checked for evidence, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Benefits that have not proven themselves are to be removed from the statutory insurance catalog.

The FDP wants to launch a prevention strategy and let insurers reward people who take preventive care with a lower supplementary contribution. Waiting times for psychotherapy are to fall below four weeks, and the party stands by cannabis legalization.

The FDP wants people to do more to stay healthy. People who do so should be able to pay less to their health insurer. Nobody should wait more than four weeks for psychotherapy. Cannabis should stay legal.

For prevention, the platform relies on digital tools such as health apps, telemedicine and wearables. In mental health, destigmatization and easy-to-reach digital services are to help; until waiting times fall, cost reimbursement is to become simpler and more standardized. On addictive substances, the FDP wants education rather than criminalizing use. In its view, cannabis legalization curbs the black market and secures quality and youth protection.

The FDP wants people to be able to use assisted dying with legal certainty while significantly expanding suicide prevention. Organ donation numbers are to rise without touching each person's free decision.

The FDP wants people to decide about their own death. Help with dying should have clear legal rules. People with thoughts of suicide should get more help. There should be more organ donations.

The platform treats bodily self-determination as central to a liberal society. The rules on living organ donation are to be loosened. For organ donation, the decision is to remain with each individual. Anyone with suicidal thoughts is to be offered help by the state.

The FDP wants to free care providers from red tape, recruit more skilled workers at home and abroad, and ease the burden on family caregivers. Long-term care insurance is to remain a partial-coverage pay-as-you-go system but gain a capital-funded element.

The FDP wants less paperwork in care. More care workers should come, also from abroad. Care insurance should invest part of its money. This should keep contributions stable.

Duplicate inspections and proof and documentation duties are to be dropped. Recognition of foreign care workers is to be greatly simplified, and digital tools, automation and robotics are to relieve staff. Easy-to-reach counseling is planned for children and teenagers who care for relatives. Because society is aging, the FDP wants to broaden financing, create more incentives for private provision, and treat company care plans the same as company pensions.