ÖDP on health and care

The ÖDP wants to reorganize health care funding and create a single health insurance plan for everyone. The platform treats health care as an essential public service in which profit-seeking should have no place.

The ÖDP wants one health insurance for all people. Private add-on insurance stays possible. Nobody should make a profit from health care. Hospitals should no longer close. Nurses should get more pay.

Funding gaps in health insurance would be covered by taxes. The Fallpauschalen (flat per-case hospital payments) would be scrapped, and practices, hospitals and care facilities would instead be paid enough to cover their costs. Care should be available everywhere and close to home, preferably run by municipal and nonprofit providers, with no further hospital closures. The platform calls for considerably more staff, higher pay for nurses and better working conditions. Production of medicines and medical technology should return to Germany to be prepared for future crises.

The ÖDP rejects mandatory vaccination in Germany. It calls vaccination an act of solidarity and wants to reach a high vaccination rate through public information so that shots can remain voluntary.

The ÖDP does not want mandatory vaccination in Germany. But it says getting vaccinated is important and shows solidarity. People should be well informed. Then vaccination can stay voluntary.

According to the platform, a high vaccination rate also protects people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. To keep vaccination voluntary, people should be informed about the risks and about why shots are needed. There should be no legal obligation to get vaccinated.

The ÖDP wants enough hospice places and palliative care services everywhere in Germany. The federal government would co-fund this and make it binding by law. According to the program, the terminally ill and dying are entitled to solidarity from the state and society.

The ÖDP wants more help for dying people. There should be enough hospice places everywhere. A hospice is a home for people who are dying. The government should help pay for it. People who want to should be able to die at home.

The program wants to make a dignified death at home possible when the person concerned and those around them wish it. Good medical care and financial support are to be available for this. A federal law would make hospice and palliative care provision mandatory, and federal money would adequately co-fund it.