What do the parties in Hesse say on health and care?

The AfD wants to equip nursing homes, retirement homes, and hospices with digital devices. Residents should be able to stay in touch with relatives through assisted video calls, both in times of isolation and in everyday life.

People in care homes should be able to see their family by video. The homes should get devices for this. Someone helps residents with the video call. The AfD says many residents were very lonely during Covid.

The AfD wants to largely preserve municipal hospitals, keep them from being privatized, and fund them according to need. The state should fully meet its investment obligations and clear the investment backlog. The platform sees maintaining health facilities as a core government task.

Cities and counties run their own hospitals. The AfD wants to keep these hospitals. They should not go to private companies. The state should pay enough money for them.

The AfD wants to expand outpatient treatment and pay it better to relieve hospitals. Budgeting, the cap on fees paid to doctors' practices, is to be lifted, and the new-patient rule is to stay. It rejects insurers' clawback claims against office-based doctors.

The AfD wants to strengthen doctors' offices. Today doctors are only paid up to a limit. This limit should go. This way hospitals should have less work.

The AfD wants midwives paid substantially more to counter the shortage in postnatal care. Because liability insurance premiums have risen sharply, it wants to examine a state liability fund. Maternity wards in hospitals close to home should remain open.

Midwives help during and after birth. The AfD wants them to earn much more. Their insurance has become very expensive. The state may help with a fund.

The AfD calls for a thorough review of the state's COVID measures in health care and wants a parliamentary committee of inquiry for that purpose. It rejects mandatory COVID vaccination and favors individual counseling and personal choice. According to the platform, this should strengthen trust in the health system.

The AfD wants to look closely at the COVID period. A special committee in the state parliament should do this. The AfD rejects a duty to get the COVID shot. Everyone should decide for themselves.

The AfD wants to expand telemedicine and integrate it more firmly into standard care. A funding program is to help doctors buy the technology. The platform sees it as a supplement to in-person treatment, especially in rural areas.

In telemedicine, the doctor talks to the patient by video or phone. The AfD wants more of this. Doctors should get money for the equipment. But visits to the doctor should stay.

The AfD wants to tackle the nursing staff shortage with better working conditions, higher pay, and targeted recruitment of qualified workers. On-call shifts lasting 24 hours in hospitals are to be abolished. Minimum staffing levels are to be observed and extended to other professions.

There are too few care workers. The AfD wants better working conditions and more pay for them. Shifts of 24 hours in hospitals should end. There should be fixed minimum numbers of staff.

The AfD wants stronger public support for sports and exercise and calls for a statewide sports initiative. A state program is to address effects of the COVID period such as lack of exercise among children and teens. At the same time, health insurers are to be relieved of general prevention costs and personal responsibility strengthened.

The AfD wants to promote more sports and exercise. Many children moved too little during COVID. A state program should help them. Sports should also matter more in school.

The CDU wants to improve the structure and funding of maternity care in Hesse and keep maternity wards close to where people live. Midwives are to get more support, and a scholarship is meant to help secure new recruits.

The CDU wants better care around birth. Maternity wards close to home should stay. Midwives should get more support. There should be a scholarship for people training as midwives.

The CDU wants to keep basic and emergency care, maternity clinics and pediatrics close to where people live, including in rural areas. State investment funding for hospitals is to stay at least at its current level. The party wants to represent Hesse's interests in the federal hospital reform.

The CDU wants to keep hospitals close to where people live. This also applies to the countryside. Hesse should keep investing a lot of money in hospitals. University hospitals should also get enough money. The CDU wants Hesse to have a say in the federal reform.

The CDU wants to secure statewide coverage with general practitioners and specialists. To that end, more university places are to be awarded through the rural doctor quota, medical care centers are to be supported, and the "Gemeindeschwester 2.0" (community nurse) project is to become permanent.

The CDU wants more doctors in the countryside. More students should get a place through the rural doctor quota. They later work in a practice in the countryside. There should be more care centers with several doctors. Community nurses should help permanently in many places.

The CDU wants to set up crisis services across the state for people in acute mental health emergencies. It also calls for more psychotherapy places, including for people with statutory insurance and for children, because it believes waiting times put treatment success at risk.

The CDU wants to help people in a mental crisis faster. There should be crisis help everywhere in Hesse. There should be more places for psychotherapy. This also applies to children and people with public health insurance. Waiting times should get shorter.

The CDU wants to raise the status of rescue workers and place them under the Interior Ministry, like the police and fire services. Community emergency paramedics and a statewide rollout of the cross-sector outpatient emergency care project are meant to ease the load on emergency rooms.

The CDU wants to strengthen the rescue service. It should belong to the Interior Ministry, like the police and fire service. New community paramedics should treat less serious cases. Only real emergencies should come to the emergency room.

The CDU wants to train more people in social and health professions and to raise the number of medical school places in Hesse once again. School-based training is to be paid, and high school grades are to count for less in admission to medical school.

The CDU wants to train more skilled workers for health and care. People who attend a school for these jobs should get paid. There should be more places to study medicine. School grades should matter less for this. Staff in doctors' offices should get 500 euros to make up for inflation.

The CDU wants to prevent shortages in medical care for children and will review rules and structures to that end. It aims for health professionals at all schools, wants to extend preventive checkups, and intends to pay more attention to young people's mental health.

The CDU wants to secure medical care for children. Schools should have health workers. There should be more checkups for children. Children with mental health problems should get better help. People who want to become child psychiatrists can get a scholarship.

The CDU wants to expand cancer research in Hesse and link universities and industry more closely for that purpose. The university tumor center in Frankfurt and the Frankfurt Cancer Institute are to be strengthened further.

The CDU wants to strengthen cancer research in Hesse. Universities and companies should work together more closely. The tumor center in Frankfurt should get more support. There should also be special centers for rare diseases.

The CDU wants to staff the public health service better and review the Hessian law governing it in light of the pandemic experience. Pandemic plans are to be exercised regularly. Further help is planned for people with long COVID and COVID vaccine injuries.

The CDU wants to strengthen the public health offices. They should get enough staff. Hesse should check and practice its pandemic plans regularly. People with long COVID should keep getting help. People with vaccine injuries should have one central place to turn to.

The CDU wants to extend the tele-emergency physician system to all of Hesse and keep promoting digitalization in health care. Hospitals, practices and citizens should be able to use digital services so that patients receive better care.

The CDU wants more digital medicine. A tele-emergency doctor helps from a distance in emergencies. This should exist in all of Hesse. Doctors should be paid fairly for treatment by video. Practices will keep getting money for digital technology.

The CDU wants to give more support to people with addiction and provide money for this from the "Hessen steht Zusammen" fund. Counseling, help with withdrawal and outreach social work in particular are to grow.

The CDU wants to help people with an addiction more. Money for this should come from a state fund. There should be more counseling. There should be more help with withdrawal. Social workers should go out to people more often.

The CDU opposes legalizing soft drugs such as cannabis, citing risks to health, families and society. At the same time, it wants to expand counseling and support for those affected and to have the substances used as knockout drops strictly regulated.

The CDU does not want to allow cannabis. It says the drug harms health and families. There should be more advice and help for people affected. Substances used for knockout drops should face stricter rules. Knockout drops make people defenseless.

The CDU wants a care guarantee: everyone should receive the care they need. To that end, the federal government is to merge the many separate benefit pots for long-term care into one budget that can be used with little red tape.

The CDU wants everyone to get the care they need. Today there are many separate pots of money for care. The federal government should turn them into one pot. That makes things easier for people.

The CDU wants to introduce a care allowance paid by the state of Hesse. People in need of care could spend the money on themselves or use it to recognize those who care for and support them.

The CDU wants a new care payment from the state of Hesse. People who need care get this money. They can spend it on themselves. Or they can give it to people who help them.

The CDU wants to press the federal government to make it easier for more companies to offer supplementary long-term care insurance. Modeled on company pension plans, this would create a further pillar of provision.

The CDU wants more extra care insurance through employers. This is insurance you get through your job. The federal government should set the rules for it. This should help people prepare for later.

The CDU wants to expand advice for people in need of care and their relatives. Care support centers are to become competence centers, care managers are to help with bureaucracy statewide, and community nurses and preventive home visits are to spot needs early.

The CDU wants more advice about care. Care managers should help relatives with applications. There should be community nurses everywhere. Experts should visit older people at home early on. That way people get help faster.

The CDU expects Hesse to need at least 16,000 additional care workers by 2040. It therefore wants to create more training and university places, win back people who left the profession, recruit skilled workers from abroad and relieve care staff of paperwork.

Hesse needs many more care workers. The CDU wants more training places. Former care workers should come back. Skilled workers from other countries should come too. Care workers should have less paperwork.

The CDU calls on the federal government for a comprehensive reform of care benefits, arguing that the federal government's proposals so far fall short. At its core are care leave with wage replacement modeled on parental leave and parental allowance, plus ten days off a year for family caregivers.

Many people care for relatives at home. The CDU wants to help them more. They should get care leave, similar to parental leave. During that time they should get money to replace their pay. They should also get ten days off each year. The federal government should arrange this.

The CDU wants to give family caregivers temporary relief by expanding short-term, respite and day care. A state funding program is to create more places; added to this are an entitlement to rehabilitation, more caregiver courses and new forms of housing and support.

People who care for relatives sometimes need a break. The CDU wants more places for short-term care and day care. The state should pay for this. Family caregivers should get a right to rehab. Rehab means rest and treatment for your health.

The CDU demands a plan from the federal government to limit residents' co-payments in nursing homes, saying the announced supplements are not enough. At the state level, it wants to improve the homes' facilities, add staff to care oversight and tie homes more closely into their neighborhoods.

A place in a nursing home costs a lot of money. The CDU wants the federal government to limit the costs for residents. The state should help improve the homes' equipment. More staff should inspect the homes. The homes should be more open to the neighborhood.

The CDU wants to expand the infrastructure and digitalization of rescue services and give paramedics (Notfallsanitäter) more medical authority. Responsibility for rescue services is to move to the ministry in charge of fire and disaster protection.

The CDU wants to keep expanding rescue services. Paramedics should be allowed to decide more on their own in an emergency. There should be more training places for them. Volunteers should be paid back for lost wages during courses. The state of Hesse will pay for this.

The CDU wants to improve medical care in rural regions, from recruiting young doctors to outpatient and inpatient services. In addition, the local first-responder system is to be expanded.

The CDU wants to do more for health care in the countryside. There should be enough doctors and hospitals there. Trained local first-aiders should also get more support. They help until the ambulance arrives.

The FDP wants to found a public-law foundation in Hesse that securely stores voluntarily donated health data and releases it for research. This is meant to give research on new treatments and drugs easier access to reliable data.

Researchers need good health data. The FDP wants to create a foundation for this. Patients can donate their data if they want. The foundation protects the data and gives it to researchers.

The FDP wants to make Hesse a pioneer in eHealth and telemedicine and to draw up a digital strategy for the health system. A Hessian eHealth fund would support digital care projects, and the state's competence center for telemedicine and eHealth would take on a more active role.

The FDP wants more digital technology in health care. People should book doctor's appointments online more easily. Rural areas should get more treatment by video. A new fund should support digital projects.

The FDP wants to develop Hesse's State Office for Health and Care into a central source of expertise. It is to draw up a statewide prevention strategy, support municipalities with their projects, and push ahead the digitalization of local health departments.

Hesse has a new state office for health and care. The FDP wants to give it more tasks. It should make a plan for preventing illness. It should help cities and counties with their projects.

The FDP considers the strict separation of outpatient and inpatient care outdated. It wants to work toward a single catalog of services with the same quality standards and the same pay, and to keep medicine as a self-employed liberal profession.

Many treatments can be done in a doctor's office or a hospital. Today the pay for them differs. The FDP wants the same pay for the same service. Doctors should remain an independent profession.

The FDP wants greater use of video consultations and remote treatment to make up for the shortage of doctors, especially in structurally weak regions. Medical services delivered digitally should be paid like in-person services, and care assistants should take over home visits.

Rural areas often lack doctors. The FDP wants more appointments by video. Doctors should get the same pay for them as in the office. Trained helpers should visit patients at home.

The FDP calls for the creation of Gesundheits-Versorgungs-Zentren (GVZ, health care centers) to secure care, especially in rural areas. They would bring doctors and other health providers together under one roof and serve as a contact point for the public.

The FDP wants new health centers in rural areas. Doctors work together there. Pharmacies and care services can be there too. People then have one place for all health questions.

The FDP wants a reform of the hospital landscape that is geared more closely to need and quality of care. In addition to per-case flat rates, hospitals should be reimbursed for the cost of keeping capacity available, but first it must be decided which hospitals with which services are needed.

The FDP wants to reorganize hospitals. It should be clear which hospital is needed where. Fixed quality rules should apply. Hospitals should also get money for keeping services ready.

The FDP wants to firmly establish the priority of outpatient over inpatient care so that people can be cared for at home as long as possible. Alternative forms of housing are to be supported and outpatient palliative services expanded statewide.

People should be cared for at home as long as possible. The FDP also wants to support shared homes as an option instead of a nursing home. There should be less red tape for them. Dying people should get good care at home everywhere.

The FDP wants to reduce bureaucracy and documentation in nursing care and to digitalize its processes. This is meant to give caregivers more time for the people they look after.

Caregivers have to write down a lot. That takes time away from patients. The FDP wants less paperwork and more digital technology. Caregivers should learn to use it in their training.

The FDP wants to tackle the staff shortage in nursing care with better working conditions, more training and recruitment of workers from abroad. In the medium term, care facilities should keep at least 105 percent of the staff they need so that duty rosters are reliable.

There are not enough care workers. The FDP wants to make care jobs better. Care homes should have a little more staff than they strictly need. Then fewer shifts get canceled. Care workers from other countries should also come.

The FDP wants to improve midwife care in Hesse and secure basic care for all pregnant women across the state. To do so, conditions should improve above all for freelance midwives.

Hesse does not have enough midwives. Midwives help women before, during and after birth. The FDP wants every pregnant woman to find a midwife anywhere in the state. Midwives should get better conditions for their work.

The FDP wants to develop and fund pilot projects that let people with dementia live independently for as long as possible. They are meant to offer an alternative to conventional care in a nursing home.

People with dementia forget more and more. The FDP wants to fund new projects for them. They should shape their own daily life for a long time. The projects should be another option besides the nursing home.

The FDP wants enough qualified treatment facilities for people with addictions, drop-in centers close to the drug scene, and the continued existence of low-threshold help for the most severely addicted. Education and counseling should get special support so that treatment is needed less often.

The FDP wants enough help for people with addictions. There should be drop-in centers where these people are. Survival help for heavily addicted people should stay. Education and counseling matter most to the FDP.

The FDP supports the federal government's course toward controlled distribution of cannabis and wants pilot projects for it in Hesse. It bases this on health and youth protection, saying cannabis on the illegal market is often contaminated.

The FDP supports controlled sales of cannabis. That means adults get cannabis legally and it is checked. Hesse should run test projects for this. The FDP says this protects health and keeps young people away from the illegal market.

The FDP wants to connect digital health services through open standards and make prescriptions, documentation and billing fully digital. For home care, robotics and digital assistance systems would be promoted.

The FDP wants more digital tools in medicine and care. Prescriptions and billing should be digital. Doctors' offices and care homes should get fast internet first. Robots should help people who are cared for at home.

The Greens want to secure basic medical care in cities and rural areas, including through health centers, mobile practices, and community nurses. Family doctor coverage is to be strengthened, especially in underserved areas.

Everyone in Hesse should have a doctor nearby. The Greens want to fund health centers for this. Different health workers work together there. There should also be more family doctors in rural areas.

The Greens want to rewrite the state hospital plan and further increase investment funding for hospitals. Ambulance services, emergency rooms, and on-call doctors are to work together more closely.

The Greens want to renew the planning for hospitals. Hospitals should get more money for investment. Not every hospital has to offer everything. But in an emergency, a hospital must be quick to reach.

The Greens want to expand inpatient and home care services, especially day care and short-term care, along with support for family caregivers. A broader recruitment drive is meant to bring more staff into health and care professions.

The Greens want more care services. People who care for relatives should get more help. More people should work in care. Foreign qualifications should be recognized faster.

The Greens want clearing offices to help people without health insurance get coverage, and plan an anonymous health voucher for those who cannot be placed. Health promotion and prevention are also to be expanded.

Some people have no health insurance. Advice offices should help them get it. If that does not work, there will be an anonymous health voucher. With it, they can still see a doctor.

The Greens want to further strengthen local public health offices through the state office for health and care. These offices are also to protect people from heat and extreme weather, and hospitals are to get support on the path to climate neutrality.

Climate change brings more hot days. That can make people sick. The Greens want to protect people better from heat. Towns and cities should get their own heat plans. Hospitals should become climate-friendly.

The Greens want a drug policy built on education, prevention and help for people with addiction. In the platform's view, criminalizing addicts has failed to achieve its goals; the party welcomes cannabis legalization at the federal level.

The Greens want to help people with addiction instead of punishing them. There should be more therapy. There should be rooms where addicts can take drugs more safely. The Greens welcome plans to allow cannabis.

The Greens want to fund Hesse's university hospitals adequately and create more places to study medicine. The party considers the privatization of the University Hospital of Giessen and Marburg (UKGM) a mistake and wants to buy it back once that is possible on acceptable terms.

The Greens want good funding for university hospitals. There should be more places to study medicine. The university hospital in Giessen and Marburg belongs to a private company. The Greens want to buy it back if the price is right.

The Greens want gender-specific differences to be given more weight in care, prevention and research, because the platform says they are currently neglected. Women's health centers are to be funded statewide and a research unit for gender medicine established. Schools and public facilities are to offer free pads and tampons.

Women and men sometimes get sick in different ways. Medicines can also work differently. The Greens want more research on this. There should be more health centers for women. Pads and tampons should be free in schools.

The Greens want to strengthen care for pregnant women and improve midwife support around birth. The basis is the set of measures from the "Runder Tisch Geburtshilfe in Hessen" (Hesse roundtable on obstetrics). The party also advocates childbirth free from violence.

Pregnant women should get better care. Midwives should support parents before, during and after birth. Hesse already has a plan for this. The Greens want to carry out this plan and improve it.

The Greens want to build a statewide network of clinics and practices that perform abortions and to fully fund pregnancy conflict counseling. At the federal level, the party supports efforts to stop treating abortion as a crime and calls for a rule against harassment outside counseling centers.

Women should be able to end a pregnancy close to where they live. There should be enough clinics and doctors for this. The state should pay fully for counseling. Nobody should harass women outside counseling centers. Abortion should no longer be a crime.

The SPD wants to bring the Gießen-Marburg university hospital, sold in 2006, out of private ownership, using all legal means available to the state. In its view, hospitals should be run on a nonprofit or public-law basis. According to the program, privatization has harmed patients, staff, the state budget, and research and teaching.

The SPD wants to take back the Gießen-Marburg university hospital. A private company has owned it since 2006. The SPD says this was bad for patients and staff. Hospitals should not work for profit. They should belong to the public.

The SPD wants to secure outpatient care by general practitioners, specialists, pediatricians and psychotherapists across the state, especially in rural areas. More places to study medicine are to be created, and the state and municipalities are to get more planning powers. Uninsured people and refugees are to gain access to treatment through an anonymous health voucher.

The SPD wants enough doctors everywhere. This matters most for villages and small towns. There should be more places to study medicine. People with mental illness should get help faster. People without health insurance should also be able to see a doctor.

The SPD wants to fund hospitals' investment costs according to need and establish hospital planning for Hesse. Outpatient and inpatient care are to be more closely linked, supplemented by municipal care centers and telemedicine. The on-call medical service is to be strengthened rather than cut.

The SPD wants to give hospitals enough money for investments. The state should plan better where hospitals are needed. Every county should get a tele-emergency doctor. That is an emergency doctor who helps by video. The doctors' on-call service should get stronger.

The SPD wants to address the shortage of skilled workers in health care with more training and university places, appropriate pay and minimum staffing standards. Collectively agreed pay raises are to be fully refinanced, and temp work in nursing reduced as far as possible. The program warns that the shortage puts lives at risk.

The SPD wants more nurses and caregivers. There should be more training places. There should be fixed rules on the minimum number of staff. Higher wages should be fully paid for. There should be less temp work in nursing.

The SPD wants a state care plan to expand care close to home and give family caregivers better support. It envisions more places in outpatient care, day care, short-term care and respite care, as well as care support centers across the state. A strategy to prevent the need for care is meant to let people live at home longer.

The SPD wants a plan for care in Hesse. There should be more care places close to home. Family members who give care should get more help. There should be care support centers everywhere. These are offices that give advice about care.

The SPD wants maternity wards to be within easy reach for expectant parents and every woman in labor to have one-on-one care from a midwife. Midwives are to be paid better, and more training places are to be created.

The SPD wants better help during childbirth. Every woman should have her own midwife during birth. Maternity wards should be close to home. Midwives should get more pay.

The SPD wants women anywhere in Hesse to be able to reach a practice or clinic that performs abortions within one hour by public transit. The same is to apply to recognized pregnancy conflict counseling centers. People on low incomes are to have contraceptives and hygiene products paid for.

The SPD wants women to reach an abortion provider quickly. The trip by bus or train should take one hour at most. The same goes for counseling centers. Poor people should get contraceptives for free.

The SPD wants an action plan to secure medical care for children through midwives, pediatric practices, and children's hospitals. It argues that many parents cannot find a pediatrician and that about a quarter of practices could disappear by 2025.

Many parents cannot find a children's doctor. So the SPD wants a plan for children's medicine. Children should get good care from midwives, doctors, and hospitals.

The SPD wants to give local public health offices more money, better pay, and digital equipment. Health is to be considered in every policy area, and a heat action plan is to protect people from the effects of climate change.

The SPD wants to strengthen public health offices. They should get more money and modern computers. Staff should earn more. A plan should protect people in extreme heat.

The SPD wants to push at every political level for a solidarity-based Bürgerversicherung (a single health insurance for everyone) to end what it calls two-tier medicine. In Hesse, civil servants are to be able to choose between public and private health insurance.

The SPD wants a Bürgerversicherung. That is one shared health insurance for everyone. In Hesse, civil servants should be able to choose. They can then have public or private insurance.