Linke on health and care

The Left wants to keep every hospital site in Saxony, if necessary as a polyclinic with a round-the-clock emergency room. It rejects closures without replacement because it sees basic care at risk.

No hospital in Saxony should close completely. Some can become a polyclinic. Many doctors work there under one roof. Emergencies should be treated there day and night.

The platform notes that about one third of the 112 hospitals that existed in 1990 have since closed. Hospitals in a region should cooperate more closely and divide services among themselves. Polyclinics and medical care centers are meant to combine inpatient and outpatient care and ease the shortage of general practitioners and specialists in rural areas. Once basic care is secured everywhere, the Left considers it sensible to concentrate specialized and maximum care at a few sites. Setting up a practice should become easier through less red tape, digitalization and better working conditions.

The Left wants to bring hospitals back into public ownership and ban profit distributions from hospital operations. The state should adequately fund investments, and the flat-rate per-case payments should be replaced by cost-covering budgets.

Hospitals should belong to towns and districts again. The state should provide at least 100 million euros for this. Hospitals should not be allowed to pay profits to owners. The state should give more money for modern hospitals.

Municipalities and districts that want to buy back hospitals should receive money from a state fund; the federal government should also contribute. The state's investment subsidies should be specifically regulated by law, with additional subsidies for digitalization. Hospitals should cover their costs but neither yield dividends nor prop up district budgets. Instead of per-case flat rates, the Left calls for individual, needs-based budgets that each hospital negotiates annually with the health insurers.

The Left wants to bring everyone into the statutory health insurance system and abolish the contribution assessment ceiling. In the long term, it also calls for long-term care insurance that covers all costs; in the short term, out-of-pocket care costs should be capped.

Everyone should pay into the same health insurance. Today, people pay contributions only up to a certain income limit. This limit should go. Rich people would then pay more. Care insurance should later cover all costs.

The contribution assessment ceiling means that income above a threshold is exempt from contributions, which the party considers unfair. In its view, a solidarity-based insurance for all would also make the hospital budgets it demands affordable. In long-term care, the Left wants to support family caregivers and cap out-of-pocket costs.

The Left wants to tackle the shortage of family doctors with measures that work in the short term. These include state-funded digitalization of practices, less paperwork, regularly adjusted physician pay and an end to budget caps on treatment.

Saxony does not have enough family doctors. The Left wants to give doctors' offices more help. The state should pay for digital equipment. Doctors should fill out fewer forms. Health insurers should not limit treatment because of money.

The platform calls for the state of Saxony to co-fund the digitalization of practices and for less bureaucracy across medical care. Physician pay should be adjusted more often so that practices can offer their staff good conditions. The party rejects budget caps and cites the restriction of periodontitis treatment following the 2022 GKV-Finanzstabilisierungsgesetz (statutory health insurance stabilization act) as an example. Group practices, mobile practices and community nurses are to receive more support, as is accessibility in practices. Qualifications of foreign doctors living in Saxony should be recognized faster. Medical assistants are to be upgraded through further training, degree programs and funded home visits.

The Left wants to implement the national health goal "Gesund rund um die Geburt" (healthy around birth). Maternity clinics, birth centers and freelance midwives should be available close to home everywhere in Saxony so that people can freely choose where to give birth.

The Left wants better care for pregnant women and mothers. There should be maternity clinics and midwives all over Saxony. Women should choose where they give birth. There should be more delivery rooms led by midwives.

The platform describes maternity care in Saxony as increasingly precarious. Midwife-led delivery rooms are to be set up across the state to relieve both families and hospitals. More university places and further training are to be created for midwives. A state working group on midwife care is to bring midwives and state politics together. The health goal also covers prevention, early detection, information and cooperation among health professions.

The Left wants to rebuild the public health service, which it says was neglected for decades. A state health office is to coordinate the work of local health departments.

The Left wants stronger public health offices. They advise people and protect against infections. Saxony should get its own state health office. It should help local offices work together.

The platform points to the COVID-19 pandemic, when the service was needed for information, infection control and prevention. Health departments are also to offer HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis to relieve overburdened specialist practices, and pilot projects such as "Checkpoint plus" run by Aidshilfe Dresden are to be funded. A state heat protection plan is to set out measures to protect the population from extreme heat. Spa and rehabilitation facilities are to get state support to expand capacity.

The Left wants to expand care for people with mental illness, arguing that cases have risen while therapy places have not. Care should be non-violent and community-based, and crisis intervention should work reliably.

More and more people have mental illnesses. Many wait a long time for therapy. The Left wants to improve help. Help should be close to home. People in a crisis should get help fast.

The third state psychiatry plan is to be published quickly and address the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and care for refugees. A state office for social and community psychiatry is to handle coordination. New treatment approaches are to be funded through pilot projects. Peer recovery supporters are to play a larger role, with their training financially secured. The platform views mental illness as a social problem as well, made worse by poverty, stressful work and discrimination.

The Left wants to go beyond federal decriminalization and allow tested cannabis to be sold in licensed shops. The party says this would protect health and push back the black market. Addiction services and prevention are to be expanded at the same time.

Cannabis is partly allowed in Germany. The Left wants more. Adults should be able to buy tested cannabis in licensed shops. This should shrink illegal dealing. There should also be more help for addiction.

In the party's view, users should not have to rely only on growing their own or on growers' associations. Licensed sales are meant to make tested products available for personal use. Addiction service capacity in Saxony is to grow. Special prevention programs are planned above all for children and young people.

The Left wants pregnant people everywhere in Saxony to find ideologically neutral pregnancy conflict counseling near them. An abortion should also be available close to home and without obstacles. The state is to fund the counseling in full.

Pregnant people should find neutral counseling near their home. Anyone who wants to end a pregnancy should be able to do so nearby. There should be no obstacles. The state should pay for all of the counseling.

The party wants to maintain a statewide network of outpatient and inpatient facilities under the legal requirements for the long term. Counseling and the procedure are to be accessible with few or no barriers. The platform justifies full state funding by noting that counseling is a legally mandated task that requires highly qualified staff.

The Left wants to ease the burden on care workers and bring their wages up to western German levels, with at least 3,000 euros gross per month. To attract more skilled staff, training places are to be expanded and the state is to pay trainee wages.

Care workers in Saxony earn less than in western Germany. The Left wants to change that. Care workers should get at least 3,000 euros a month before taxes. There should be more training places. The state should pay trainees' wages.

Digitalization, less bureaucracy and technical aids are meant to make the work easier. Continuing education and health prevention for staff are to become more accessible. More places are planned in training, degree programs, further training and adaptation courses. The state is also to offer financial incentives for entering the care sector. A one-year care assistant training recognized under state law is to be introduced.

The Left wants to support people who care for relatives at home with job leave, wage replacement and pension credits. Home and outpatient care are to take priority over nursing homes. Regional needs planning and a state care commissioner are to steer care in the state.

Many people care for relatives at home. The Left wants to help them. They should be able to pause their job and return later. They should get money during this time. Care time should count toward their pension.

Care periods are to count toward pensions in a way similar to child-raising periods, alongside counseling, training and health promotion. The party aims for care work to be shared fairly between the genders. Neighborhood help, district-based care and caring communities are to be strengthened, and opening hospitals for short-term care is to be examined. Regionally differentiated needs planning is to lead to a state care strategy. Mobile care services are to be paid by time spent, including travel costs. The state parliament is to elect a state care commissioner.

In the long run, the Left wants long-term care insurance that covers all care services and that all groups of earners pay into. Until then, the federal government is to cap residents' out-of-pocket shares. As a stopgap, the state is to subsidize care homes' investment costs and pay a state care allowance.

Care costs more and more for those who need it. The Left wants insurance that pays all care costs. Everyone should pay in, including civil servants and the self-employed. Until then, people's own share should be capped. Saxony should also pay a state care allowance.

The platform argues that many people in need of care have to apply for welfare because out-of-pocket shares have risen sharply, which the party calls degrading. Civil servants, the self-employed and politicians are also to pay into the full insurance. As long as the federal government sets no cap, the state is to give providers investment grants modeled on hospital financing. A state care allowance is demanded in addition.

The Left wants drug policy to put health protection in place of criminal prosecution. Possession of illegal substances would no longer be a crime, in the long run for all drugs. Addiction services, prevention and offerings such as drug checking and supervised consumption rooms would be expanded.

The Left wants to help people with addiction instead of punishing them. Having drugs should no longer be a crime. There should be more counseling and help. Towns should be allowed to open consumption rooms. There, people take drugs under supervision.

Proceedings over small amounts could be dropped, as in other German states; the party seeks uniform nationwide rules. A state regulation would make consumption rooms possible, with municipalities deciding whether to set them up. Substitution therapy would be open to everyone dependent on opioids, including in prison, which the party says requires more doctors. Municipal counseling centers are meant to make criminal trials unnecessary. For alcohol, tobacco and crystal meth, the Left wants stronger prevention and addiction services.