SPD on health and care

The SPD in Saxony supports the federal reform of hospital financing and emergency care. Hospitals are no longer to be paid solely through per-case flat rates so that, according to the platform, medical need comes before economic benefit.

The federal government wants to pay hospitals differently. The SPD in Saxony supports this. Hospitals should also get money for being ready to treat people. Rural hospitals should benefit from this.

Rural sites in particular are expected to benefit from the Vorhaltepauschale, a payment for keeping services available regardless of case numbers. The platform expects the same from better funding for pediatric and adolescent medicine and obstetrics. The SPD wants to develop quality in Saxony's health sector together with all stakeholders and points to the process behind the new Saxon hospital law. In its view, such reforms take time and money.

The SPD stands by the Bürgerversicherung (citizens' insurance), a single health insurance system for everyone, and wants to push for it at the federal level. It aims to end what it calls two-tier medicine.

The SPD wants one health insurance for everyone. It is called citizens' insurance. Then there is no more split into public and private insurance. The SPD wants to push for this at the federal level.

The Bürgerversicherung would replace the coexistence of statutory and private health insurance with one common system. The SPD places the demand within its goal of a health care landscape that is fair for all. Long-term care is also to be financed on a solidarity basis. The federal government would be responsible for introducing it.

The SPD pledges that emergency, basic and acute care will remain available close to home everywhere in Saxony. At the same time, hospitals are to specialize in focus areas, and health centers are to preserve small rural sites.

The SPD wants emergency help to be close by everywhere. Health centers should be set up in rural areas. Hospitals should specialize in certain illnesses. The state and towns should keep investing in hospitals.

Integrated emergency centers and health centers are to link services inside and outside hospitals. The platform justifies specialization by saying that treating similar cases often brings more experience, better equipment and demonstrably better results. It says the amended Saxon hospital law opens new options for this, to be implemented in the coming years. The state, municipalities and hospital operators are to keep investing in hospitals together.

The SPD wants to bring more people into health professions and deploy existing staff more effectively. To do so, it calls for binding minimum staffing levels and closer integration of outpatient and hospital care.

The SPD wants more staff in hospitals and care homes. There should be fixed rules on the minimum number of staff. Doctors' offices and hospitals should work together more closely. Working conditions should get better.

The platform names mandatory minimum staffing levels as a way to improve working conditions. More training partnerships are meant to let small care facilities offer training places too. People who work as practical instructors should be paid extra for that additional qualification. As steps already taken, the SPD lists the rural doctor quota, free tuition for health professions and the recruitment of skilled workers from abroad.

The SPD wants to push back economic pressure in hospital care and build care structures fit for the future. In its view, health and long-term care must not depend on a person's income.

The SPD wants hospitals to focus less on making money. Care should get better. Good treatment should not depend on how much money people have. Everyone should get good care.

The platform describes health care as a public service shaped especially by solidarity. The SPD wants to continue what it calls the de-economization of hospital care, raise the quality of nursing and create sustainable care structures. For employees it calls for fair pay, good working conditions and a better work-family balance. Everyone should be entitled to good medical care.

The SPD wants to press at the federal level for a reform of long-term care insurance so that everyone can afford care. In Saxony, it plans to expand short-term care, fund care places directly and create a state care law.

The SPD wants everyone to be able to afford care. For that, care insurance should be changed. There should be more places for short-term care. This helps people who care for relatives. Saxony should get its own care law.

At the federal level, the SPD backs a reform of long-term care insurance. In the state, it wants to keep investing in training, career changers and winning back care workers, and to recruit staff from abroad. A funding program is to pay for care places directly, and neighborhood helpers and everyday companions are to be strengthened. A state care law, drawn up with local governments, is meant to assign tasks and responsibility clearly. Together with advocacy groups, the SPD wants to work out a path toward a stronger common voice for the care sector.

The SPD wants employers and employees in Saxony to fund long-term care insurance in equal shares again. No public holiday is to be given up in exchange.

In Saxony, workers pay more for long-term care insurance than their employers. The SPD wants to change that. Both should pay the same. No public holiday should be lost for this.

According to the platform, employees in Saxony have carried an extra share of the long-term care contribution for almost thirty years. The SPD calls this unequal treatment. It wants to establish equal financing while keeping all public holidays in the state.

The SPD wants to expand addiction prevention and support services and backs the federal plan to decriminalize cannabis and bring it under state control. According to the platform, this makes effective prevention and action against the black market possible.

The SPD wants more help for people with addiction. Children and teenagers should get help quickly. The SPD also supports the federal plan on cannabis. Cannabis should no longer be a crime. The state should control how it is handled.

Addiction prevention and support facilities are to be strengthened further. The SPD stresses fast and reliable help for affected children and teenagers. The platform justifies its support for the federal cannabis plans with better prevention and the fight against illegal trade. In addition, all children and teenagers are to have free access to health care, and preventive checkups are to become standard in daycare centers and schools.

The SPD wants to keep acute care at every hospital location in Saxony. Doctors' offices, health centers, emergency services, hospitals and care facilities are to cooperate more closely, and care services in rural areas are to be expanded.

The SPD wants to keep emergency care at all hospital sites in Saxony. Doctors, hospitals, ambulance services and care homes should work together more closely. Rural areas should get more care services. Digital health services should grow too.

The platform cites the shortage of skilled workers in hospitals as background. Better links between health centers and hospitals are also meant to improve staffing. Cross-sector cooperation is to receive more support, and e-health services are to be expanded. On nursing care, the SPD wants to help municipalities plan and build stable structures. The focus is on expanding short-term care and recruiting skilled staff.

The SPD wants long-term care not to depend on income and calls for a cap on patients' own contributions. At the federal level it wants all options considered, including full-coverage care insurance.

Long-term care has become very expensive. Everyone should get care, even with little money. The SPD wants to limit what people pay themselves. It wants to achieve this at the federal level. One option is insurance that pays all care costs.

The platform points to sharply increased care costs. The amounts that people in need of care pay themselves are to be capped. The SPD wants to put every option on the table at the federal level, naming full-coverage insurance as the most far-reaching. At the same time, care work is to be paid better while staying affordable for those affected.

The SPD wants to win more staff for health professions through training, career changers, returnees and financially supported immigration. To address the shortage of family doctors in rural areas, the 20-point program and the rural doctor quota are to continue.

Clinics, practices and care homes lack skilled staff. The SPD wants to train more people. It also wants to support skilled workers from abroad with money. Rural areas lack family doctors. Programs for rural doctors should continue.

School fees for health professions such as speech therapy or physiotherapy stay abolished. The SPD will continue supporting midwifery through the health professions funding guideline. Staff with academic degrees in nursing and therapy professions are also to play a role. The 20-point program with scholarships and more study places is to be strengthened and developed further with municipalities. Through the advance quota, 40 medical school places a year will continue to be awarded outside the grade-based admission limit. Together with the association of statutory health insurance physicians, more insurance-funded slots for psychotherapy are to be created.

The SPD wants to keep investing in hospitals and to use money from the Sachsenfonds 2050 for this. Where necessary, hospitals are to return to municipal ownership. Health centers are to secure care in rural areas.

The SPD wants to put money into hospitals. Some of the money should come from a special fund. Some hospitals should belong to towns and counties again. Rural areas should have health centers. There, doctors' offices and hospitals work together.

The investments are meant to accompany the restructuring of the hospital landscape. In reforming municipal revenue sharing, the SPD wants to make sure municipalities that run hospitals have enough funds. Regional conferences are to coordinate future structures locally. Health centers linking outpatient and inpatient care are anchored in the hospital law. For university medicine, the investment strategy continues and the university hospital law will be revised; e-health is to get more funding through the "eHealthSax" guideline.

The SPD wants to set up a state health office to coordinate the regional health authorities. Children who attend the U9 preventive checkup are to receive 100 euros. The public health service and addiction prevention are to be strengthened.

Saxony should get a state health office. It should coordinate the local health offices. Children get 100 euros for going to the U9 checkup. Health offices should have better-trained staff. There should be more prevention against addiction.

The new office is to relieve the authorities and take on key tasks in health crises. The U9 bonus is meant to raise attendance at this checkup. The SPD will continue the pact for the public health service, focusing on training and continuing education. Addiction prevention is to pay more attention to alcohol and to grow for teenagers and young adults in view of cannabis legalization. The vaccination roundtable continues, and solutions are to be sought with all parties for people without health insurance.

The SPD wants to draft a state care law together with municipalities that clearly divides tasks between the state and municipalities. Care coordinators, short-term care and neighborhood help are to keep receiving funding. Family caregivers are to get better information.

Saxony should get a state care law. It sets out who is responsible for what. There should be more places for short-term care. Neighborhood helpers should keep helping. Family members who give care should get better information.

The law is meant to ensure the quality of care for people who need it. The budget for care coordinators, currently 1.3 million euros, will continue. The SPD wants to expand the program for additional short-term care places because they serve as a bridge between hospital and nursing home. The program of trained neighborhood helpers stays in place. For the roughly 183,000 people cared for solely by relatives, information services are to be improved and the week for family caregivers developed further.