Linke on health and care

The Left wants a single health and long-term care insurance into which everyone pays contributions on all income. Privately insured people would move into the public system, and care insurance would cover all care services. According to the platform, health should not depend on a person's wallet or insurer.

The Left wants one health insurance for everyone. People with private insurance would pay in too. Contributions would be due on all income. Care insurance would pay all costs of care. Most people would pay lower contributions.

The income ceiling for contributions would be dropped, and contributions would also be due on capital income. According to the platform, the health insurance rate would fall from 17.1 to about 13.3 percent of gross pay; everyone earning less than about 7,100 euros gross a month would pay less. The insurance would cover all medically useful services, including dentures and glasses. Full care insurance would end out-of-pocket costs in nursing homes, which would also relieve municipalities. People without regular residence status and the uninsured would get care nationwide.

The Left wants a law setting how many staff health professions need and calls for at least 100,000 additional nurses in hospitals. Outsourcing used to cut wages would end. The platform sees cost pressure and staff shortages as causes of overload and poorer care.

The Left wants more nurses in hospitals. A law would set how many staff are needed. Former nurses should be won back. Everyone in one hospital should be paid under the same contract.

The nursing staff regulation PPR 2.0 would be implemented, developed further and backed by sanctions for violations. Staffing rules would apply to all medical, therapeutic and nursing professions and be funded. Programs are planned to win back skilled workers who left and to expand training. Collective agreements would be funded and more easily declared generally binding. Outsourced areas such as kitchens, cleaning or logistics would be brought back in-house; counseling services would be offered to workers in stressful health professions.

The Left wants to scrap flat-rate payments per case and have health insurers fully cover hospitals' necessary operating costs. Profits and losses would then hardly be possible. The party rejects the previous coalition's hospital reform because, in its view, it endangers small hospitals and keeps competition in place.

Hospitals today get fixed amounts per treatment. The Left wants to end that. Insurers would pay the necessary costs in full. Hospitals would no longer make profits. Private hospitals that are given up would go to the public.

Private operators could still run hospitals but, the platform expects, would lose interest without the prospect of profit. Hospitals given up by private owners would move into public ownership; municipalities and states could use a re-municipalization fund for this. The federal and state governments would tackle the investment backlog in buildings and equipment, which the wealth tax could help fund. Changes to the hospital landscape should be planned and based on need, not driven by insolvencies. The federal government would reliably fund basic care close to home.

The Left wants to promote municipal health centers that combine outpatient, inpatient, nursing and therapy services in one place. Psychotherapy services would be greatly expanded. The platform points to hard-to-reach practices, long waits and a lack of doctors in many regions.

The Left wants health centers run by towns and cities. Doctors, care and therapy would be in one place. There would be more places for psychotherapy. Investors should no longer profit from medical practices.

Planning districts for care would become smaller and be set by states and municipalities. Professions such as nurses, midwives, pharmacists and paramedics would be allowed to treat and advise more independently. As long as therapy places are lacking, psychotherapy would be paid through cost reimbursement; planning of licensed practice slots would follow actual need, and training costs would be capped. The party wants to stop private equity firms from buying up nursing homes and medical care centers. For the electronic patient record, it demands that gaps in data protection be closed.

The Left wants to push back the influence of pharmaceutical companies, place drug research under public control and set prices uniformly across the EU. Research on neglected diseases such as ME/CFS and long COVID would get more funding. The platform points to fast-rising drug spending by health insurers.

Medicines are often very expensive. The Left wants the EU to set the same prices everywhere. The state should oversee research on medicines. There should be more money for research on long COVID.

According to the platform, public health insurers pay more than 50 billion euros for drugs, and past pricing rules have not slowed the increase. Targeted funds would go to public health research and non-commercial clinical trials. For ME/CFS and long COVID, funding would match the severity, frequency and research gap and aim at making treatments available. Evidence-based lessons would be drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic, for example on clean indoor air.

The Left wants a system change in long-term care: corporations are to be pushed out of residential care and private homes transferred to public ownership. It also calls for 100,000 additional care workers in nursing homes and equal pay in elder care and hospital nursing.

The Left wants to change the care system. Private nursing homes should belong to the state or to towns. Big companies should no longer make money with nursing homes. 100,000 more care workers should work in the homes. Elder care should pay as well as hospital nursing.

In the party's view, funding for homes should be based on actual costs. Small care providers, which the platform describes as ineffective, are to be merged into public, nonprofit structures. The platform sees a need for 100,000 more care workers in nursing homes and notes that many former care workers would return if conditions improved. The pay gap of about 300 euros between elder care and hospital nursing is to be closed.

The Left wants to introduce full-coverage long-term care insurance that pays all care costs, so that out-of-pocket contributions disappear in the long run. Costs for room and board in nursing homes are to be capped.

Today people in nursing homes pay a lot themselves. The Left wants to change that. A new care insurance should pay all costs of care. Room and food in the home should not get too expensive either.

The full-coverage insurance is meant to eliminate out-of-pocket contributions over the long term. For room and board, which care insurance does not cover, the platform calls for a cap. The federal states would be required to pay investment and training costs. As a short-term step, the platform calls for raising the Schonvermögen, the amount of assets people in need of care are allowed to keep.

The Left wants to ease the burden on people caring for relatives: six weeks of paid leave, cash benefits and pension credits. It also wants to expand day care and short-term care and to regulate so-called 24-hour care provided by foreign workers.

Many people care for family members themselves. The Left wants to help them more. When a family member first needs care, workers should get six weeks off. The employer keeps paying their wages. Caregivers should also get money and a higher pension.

The party considers the existing Pflegeunterstützungsgeld (short-term care support allowance) insufficient. The six-week leave would be fully paid by the employer. All family caregivers would receive cash benefits and pension credits, and both people needing care and their relatives would be entitled to vacation. Local, nonprofit day care and short-term care would be paid for by the full-coverage care insurance. For live-in caregivers from abroad, the platform demands social insurance, statutory working hours, vacation and the minimum wage.

The Left wants to stop punishing drug use and rely on prevention, counseling and support instead. Cannabis would be fully legalized. According to the platform, bans reduce neither trafficking nor use and themselves cause many problems.

The Left no longer wants to punish people for taking drugs. They should get help and advice instead. Cannabis should be fully legal. Ads for alcohol, tobacco and gambling should be banned.

In place of prosecution, the platform calls for medical and social-work programs. To legalize cannabis fully, the party wants to secure the necessary changes at EU and UN level. Supervised consumption rooms, sterile supplies, overdose medication and drug checking would be available everywhere. For all drugs including alcohol, science-based blood limits would apply in road traffic. The platform also calls for a ban on advertising and sponsorship for tobacco, alcohol, other drugs and gambling, and a ban on slot machines in bars and restaurants.