PdF on health and care

The PdF wants to make care work more attractive and secure the supply of care. Its plans include a permanent tax-free bonus, statutory minimum staffing levels, state-funded care facilities, and higher subsidies for home care services.

The PdF wants more people to work in care. Care workers should get a lasting bonus without tax. A law should set the lowest number of staff. The state should pay for its own care homes. Home care services should get more money.

The platform bases its proposals on the staff shortage: by 2040, home care alone would need 97,000 to 183,000 additional workers. Besides the bonus, training for specialized tasks would be funded. Digital shift planning is meant to make last-minute call-ins less common. State-funded facilities are meant to serve as models for good working conditions.

The PdF wants to make nursing care more attractive through better working conditions, higher pay and more training places. In addition, a nationwide program would support volunteers who help care for seniors.

There are not enough trained workers in elder care. The PdF wants to pay care workers better. Working hours should fit family life better. There should be more training places. Volunteers should get support too.

The plan includes mandatory minimum wages and targeted pay raises for care workers, along with flexible working-time models to help balance work and family. The state would increase subsidies for care training institutions so that more places are created. Scholarships and retraining would attract people from other occupations into elder care. A nationwide volunteer program would train volunteers and offer financial incentives, and platforms would connect them with senior facilities.

The PdF wants to build a nationwide network of easily accessible mental health counseling centers for young people and make the topic a fixed part of everyday school life. The platform names excessive digital use, social media and bullying at school as sources of strain.

Many young people have mental health problems. The PdF wants counseling centers for them everywhere. Schools should get psychologists and programs against bullying. Young people should learn to use phones and the internet well.

The counseling centers would serve as a first point of contact for psychological strain and enable early intervention. Media literacy programs would make young people aware of the risks of excessive digital use and help them view online content critically. Schools would permanently offer school psychologists, mindfulness programs and anti-bullying initiatives. For schools in disadvantaged areas with serious bullying problems, the PdF considers discipline programs necessary to foster a respectful learning climate.

The PdF supports the hospital reform so far and calls for further steps to ensure nationwide care. Hospitals would be paid for keeping services available and would specialize, and emergency care would be reorganized.

The PdF wants to continue the hospital reform. Hospitals should get money for their basic costs. They should specialize in certain treatments. Hospitals should have emergency centers. Paramedics should be allowed to do more.

Standby payments would cover hospitals' basic costs, with per-case payments added for special services. Specialization by service groups is meant to ensure quality. Facilities that combine outpatient and inpatient care would provide basic care close to home. For emergencies, the program calls for integrated emergency centers at hospitals and better-connected dispatch centers. Paramedics would be given expanded powers.

The PdF wants to remove fee budget caps for general practitioners so that every service is paid in full. Municipalities would also find it easier to set up medical centers, and a single fee schedule would apply to all doctors.

Today, family doctors are not paid in full for every treatment. The PdF wants to change that. Then family doctors should take on more patients. Towns should find it easier to open medical centers. One single fee schedule should apply to all doctors.

Full payment for all services is meant to ease financial pressure on GP practices and lead to more patients and longer office hours. Municipalities would be able to set up Medizinische Versorgungszentren (MVZ, medical care centers) more easily. Health kiosks and primary care centers are to close gaps, especially in rural areas. A uniform fee schedule for doctors is intended to provide planning certainty, simplify billing and increase transparency.

The PdF wants to make prevention a fixed part of the health system and create financial incentives for it. It points out that only about three percent of health spending goes to prevention.

The PdF wants to keep people from getting sick in the first place. There should be more preventive care. Health insurers and doctors should be rewarded for it. Companies should get tax benefits when they promote their workers' health.

The focus is on chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. Programs to prevent mental disorders are also to be expanded because the number of people affected is growing. Insurers and providers would receive a bonus for setting up preventive services. Companies with workplace health programs would get tax benefits. In the program's view, this lowers costs in the long run.

On vaccination, the PdF relies on voluntary choice, scientific evidence and public information. It considers a legal vaccine mandate possible only in exceptional danger situations, and the state should give special protection to sensitive settings such as schools and care homes.

The PdF wants people to decide for themselves about vaccines. A vaccine mandate should only be possible in special danger situations. The state should give extra protection in schools, daycare and care homes. The party wants clear and simple information about vaccines.

The party stresses citizens' self-determined choice. At the same time, it sees a state duty to protect schools, kindergartens and care facilities, where vulnerable groups are affected. A legal mandate would have to be well justified and based on scientific findings. Reliable and easy-to-understand information is meant to counter misinformation and reduce fears.

The PdF wants to create 1,600 additional statutory insurance licenses for psychotherapists, mainly in rural and structurally weak regions. It also wants to end the sale of these licenses together with practices, because the party sees the costs as an obstacle to care for publicly insured patients.

Many people wait a long time for psychotherapy. The PdF wants 1,600 new licenses for therapists. Such a license allows a therapist to treat publicly insured patients. Today, therapists buy these licenses for a lot of money. The PdF wants to end this trade.

The program cites about 17.8 million adults affected each year and a wait of nearly five months for a therapy slot. Outpatient care for people with severe and complex conditions is to be expanded, including access to complex care services. Prevention in the workplace would be strengthened, as mental illness causes an average of 36 sick days per year. Taking over a Kassensitz (statutory insurance license) costs five- to six-figure sums, which according to the program leads many therapists to focus on private patients.

The PdF wants the federal subsidy to statutory health insurance to grow regularly and wants contributions for groups such as Bürgergeld recipients adjusted. The program points to rising spending and a record-high contribution rate as the background.

Public health insurance keeps getting more expensive. The PdF wants the federal government to pay in more money. This money should rise regularly. Contributions for people on Bürgergeld (citizen's income) should be adjusted. Money should not be spent on unneeded treatment.

The program cites a contribution rate of 16.3 percent for 2024 and considers more than 20 percent possible by 2035. It names the aging population and a shrinking number of contributors as drivers. The federal subsidy for benefits that are not part of the insurance's core tasks would rise dynamically. In addition, overuse, underuse and misuse of care are to be reduced and funds steered in a more targeted way.

The PdF wants people with statutory and private health insurance to be treated the same when booking appointments, especially with specialists. It also wants to support medical centers and polyclinics and cut red tape to secure care.

The PdF wants equal doctor's appointments for everyone. It should not matter if you have private or public insurance. The state should support new medical centers. Doctors should have less paperwork.

The platform calls for supporting the creation of medical centers and polyclinics to counter shortages in care. Bureaucratic hurdles are to be cut substantially so that medical staff have more time for patients. Insurance status should no longer play a role in scheduling appointments. The PdF names fair care for the whole population as the goal.

The PdF wants to create a central body that develops and implements uniform digital standards in health care. Telemedicine is to be expanded and the number of statutory health insurers reviewed.

The PdF wants health care to be more digital. One central office should set the rules for this. There should be more doctor visits over the internet. The PdF wants to check if Germany needs so many health insurers.

According to the platform, Germany lags behind internationally in digitizing health care. A central institution is to be responsible for uniform standards. The digital patient record should hold all important information while respecting data protection. Online consultations and telemedicine are meant to help structurally weak regions in particular. The party wants to review whether more than 90 statutory insurers, each with its own administration, are needed; AI and digital systems are to improve billing and administration.

The PdF wants to tackle obesity with nutrition and exercise education in daycare centers and schools and with legal requirements for food served in communal facilities. A national framework plan is to set binding rules for healthy and sustainable meals.

The PdF wants people to eat healthier. Children should learn about food and exercise in daycare and school. There should be fixed rules for food in schools and cafeterias. Labels on food should be clearer.

The platform notes that 53.5 percent of adults are overweight, as are about 15 percent of children and adolescents. It plans mandatory education programs, social media campaigns, nutrition labels and legal requirements for daycare centers, schools and cafeterias. Public institutions are to meet minimum quotas for regional and organic food. Regional health centers offering nutrition counseling and sports programs in disadvantaged areas are to be funded. Labels such as "sugar-free" are to be revised to prevent misleading claims.

The PdF wants to overhaul the Betäubungsmittelgesetz (Narcotics Act) so that substances are classified by their actual harm. Less dangerous substances could be supplied in a controlled way while especially harmful ones remain targeted; prevention and supervised consumption sites are to be expanded.

The PdF wants new rules for drugs. How dangerous a drug is should decide the rules. People should be able to get less dangerous drugs in a controlled way. Very dangerous drugs stay banned. There should be more help and information.

In the platform's view, the current law rests on blanket classifications shaped by history and ideology. A regulated market with quality standards is meant to push back the black market and protect consumers. Education is to target young people and at-risk groups. Supervised consumption rooms and substitution therapy should be available everywhere. Drug use in public spaces, especially near schools and playgrounds, is to be strictly regulated, with social workers, mediators and police present at hotspots.