What do the parties in Lower Saxony say on health and care?

The AfD wants to strengthen the midwifery profession and relieve freelance midwives of professional liability insurance costs. Home births and birthing centers should remain available in rural areas too. The party is skeptical of the EU-mandated shift to university training for the profession.

There are too few midwives. The AfD wants to help them. Midwives pay a lot for required insurance. The AfD wants to ease that cost. Home births should stay possible.

The AfD rejects a COVID vaccine mandate and restrictions on basic rights for the unvaccinated, above all for children. It considers the vaccines insufficiently tested and their risk impossible to assess. It wants to use all legal means to prevent mandatory vaccination of children.

The AfD is against making COVID shots mandatory. This applies most of all to children. It says the vaccines were tested too briefly. People without the shot should not face disadvantages.

The AfD wants to double state funding for hospital construction from €120 million a year and create a state structural fund of €1 billion. This is meant to clear the investment backlog. It calls the sale of municipal hospitals to private chains a mistake.

Many hospitals need money for buildings and repairs. The AfD wants to double the state's money for this. A fund of one billion euros should be added. The AfD says health must not be a business.

The AfD supports local health centers as a complement to office-based doctors and wants to develop regional health networks further. This is meant to allow care to be steered locally, with citizen participation. The party is critical of hospital chains running such centers.

The AfD wants more local health centers. Doctors from many fields work together there. Doctors, hospitals and other helpers should coordinate better. Citizens should have a say.

The AfD wants rural hospitals providing basic and standard care to be brought back under municipal ownership and kept there. It rejects any further expansion of hospital corporations.

The AfD wants to keep hospitals in the countryside. Towns and districts should own these hospitals again. Big hospital companies should not gain more influence.

The AfD wants to strengthen preventive health care and calls for free school meals that meet the standards of the German Nutrition Society. Children should be able to grow up healthy regardless of their parents' income.

The AfD wants people to stay healthy in the first place. Schools should offer free meals. The food should be healthy. Schools should teach children about healthy living.

The AfD wants to give home care greater financial recognition and create incentives for relatives who provide care. Residential care should focus mainly on people with severe or multiple impairments.

The AfD wants more money for people who care for relatives at home. Caring for family should also count more toward a pension. Care homes should mainly serve people who are very ill.

The AfD wants to tackle the shortage of care workers with higher pay, binding staffing rules and less red tape. Lower Saxony should pay the highest care reimbursement rates in Germany.

There are not enough care workers. The AfD wants to pay them better. There should be fixed rules on how many care workers must be on duty. Care workers should have less paperwork.

The AfD wants ambulance services to meet the required response time everywhere, meaning the set time limit for reaching the scene. To that end, ambulance stations should be spread out more widely, air rescue expanded, and emergency practices at hospitals kept open around the clock.

Ambulances should reach people quickly. For this, there should be more ambulance stations in more places. Rescue helicopters should be used more. Emergency practices at hospitals should be open day and night.

The AfD wants to make Germany as independent as possible from the world market for medical goods and essential medicines. It justifies this with the experience of the COVID pandemic.

Germany should make important medicines itself. The country should depend less on other countries. There should be stockpiles of vital medicines. That way Germany is supplied in a crisis.

The AfD wants to abolish the DRG system, under which hospitals bill a flat rate per case. In its view, the system has pushed local hospitals into financial trouble and puts the billing case ahead of the person.

Hospitals today get a fixed sum for each treatment. This is called the DRG system. The AfD wants to abolish it. It says the system hurts small local hospitals.

The CDU wants to expand health research at universities and non-university institutes, especially on cancer, lung disease, infections, and transplantation. Cooperation among the northern German states is also to grow.

The CDU wants to strengthen health research. This is mainly about cancer, lung disease, and infections. Researchers in northern Germany should work together more. Artificial intelligence should also help find new treatments.

The CDU wants doctors' practices to be spread more evenly across Lower Saxony so that rural regions remain well served. It relies on rules for oversupplied areas and on incentives for setting up practice in underserved ones.

Some areas have many doctors, others too few. The CDU wants to change that. Young doctors should get benefits if they move to rural areas. Family doctors should be paid better.

The CDU wants to keep investing in hospitals and introduce tiers of care to raise quality and secure basic care everywhere. Investment funding is to rise quickly to eight percent of revenue from inpatient services.

The CDU wants to spend more money on hospitals. Hospitals should be sorted into levels. Big centers should treat serious illnesses. Basic care should be available everywhere.

The CDU wants to ensure that emergency, basic and standard care can be reached within half an hour everywhere. To that end, rescue services and care in rural areas are to be expanded.

Everyone should reach medical help within 30 minutes. The CDU wants to make sure of that. Rural areas should get more health centers. Rescue services should become stronger.

The CDU wants to draw up an overall plan for digital health care together with insurers and providers. Telemedicine is to be used across the state, especially in rural areas, because the program sees it as improving care.

The CDU wants more digital technology in health care. Doctors should also be able to treat patients by video. This is called telemedicine. It should help people in rural areas most of all.

The CDU wants to improve care for mental illness and make sure there are enough psychotherapists. It points out that mental health is becoming more important and that the COVID-19 pandemic leaves its mark.

Many people have mental health problems. The CDU wants enough therapists to be available. Children and young people should get more help. The CDU also wants research on loneliness.

The CDU wants to secure the supply of medicines close to where people live and support pharmacies in this role. The local pharmacy is also to serve as an easily accessible advice point in the health system.

The CDU wants to keep local pharmacies. People should get their medicines close to home. Pharmacies should also give advice and guidance. They should get help with digital technology.

The CDU wants a state initiative to set up midwife coordination centers everywhere, because many expectant parents struggle to find a midwife. Maternity wards with permanently employed midwives are to be available throughout the state.

Many parents find it hard to get a midwife. So the CDU wants midwife centers everywhere. Hospitals should have midwives on staff. Training at universities should keep growing.

The CDU wants gender-specific medicine to receive more attention and wants to fund research on it in Lower Saxony. It bases this on people's individual medical needs.

Women and men can get sick in different ways. Medicine should pay more attention to this. The CDU wants to fund research on it. It also wants better information on illnesses like endometriosis.

The CDU wants a state program to recruit 5,000 more nursing and care workers within five years and to improve working conditions in care. In the party's view, this is the only way to keep staff, win back those who left and attract new ones.

There are not enough care workers. The CDU wants to find 5,000 new care workers in five years. A care commissioner should lead the program. Care workers should be allowed to decide more on their own.

The CDU wants to bring back the one-year training course for care aides to create an easy entry into the profession. Care training is also to be organized as dual training, freed of school fees and promoted more strongly.

The CDU wants to bring back a short training course for care aides. It lasts one year. This should bring more people into care work. No one should pay school fees for the training.

The CDU wants to make nursing training more hands-on and recruit more instructors for nursing schools. To do so, it plans practice labs, additional university places, and new nursing schools.

The CDU wants better training for nurses. Schools should get practice rooms with people who play patients. There should be more university places for nursing. Experienced nurses should find it easier to teach.

The CDU wants to meet the demand for nursing staff partly through more skilled workers from abroad and career changers. Foreign qualifications are to be recognized more easily, visas granted more readily, and entry barriers lowered.

There are not enough care workers. The CDU wants to bring in more care workers from other countries. Their qualifications should be recognized more easily. People from other jobs should also be able to move into care work more easily.

The CDU wants to introduce a Landespflegegeld (state care allowance) as a subsidy so that people needing care are not financially overwhelmed. It also wants long-term care insurance reformed at the federal level and investment funding restored for nursing homes.

Care costs a lot of money. The CDU wants the state to pay a care allowance. This is extra money for people who need care. Nursing homes should also get state money again. This should lower the costs for residents.

The CDU wants people needing care to be able to live at home longer and plans to link outpatient, day-care, and residential services more closely. Family caregivers are to get relief and new housing models are to be enabled. The party rejects a rigid quota of fully qualified staff.

Many people want to be cared for at home. The CDU wants to make this easier. There should be community nurses. These are nurses who visit people in their town. Family members who give care should get more help, such as day care. There should also be new kinds of shared housing for care.

The CDU wants to streamline administrative procedures in the care sector and consolidate authorities. At the same time, digitalization is meant to simplify work processes and documentation.

Care work comes with many rules and a lot of paperwork. The CDU wants to reduce this. Government offices should work together better. Computers and digital tools should make the work easier.

The CDU rejects a nursing chamber with compulsory membership and favors voluntary representation of interests. Unions, workplace representatives, and professional associations are to be strengthened, and a collective agreement for the care sector is to be pursued again.

Care workers should be able to speak up for their interests. The CDU does not want to force them to join a chamber. It wants to strengthen unions and associations. It also wants a collective agreement for care work. A collective agreement sets pay and working conditions for many workers.

The CDU opposes any legalization of drugs except for medical purposes. At the same time, it wants to expand prevention, counseling, and treatment in addiction services with additional funding.

The CDU does not want to allow drugs. The only exception is for medical use. The party wants to inform people more about the dangers of addiction. Schools should talk about addiction earlier. There should be more money for helping people with addiction.

The Greens want older people to be able to live at home for as long as possible and to be protected from poverty. To that end they call for more low-barrier, affordable housing with neighborhood-based care and infrastructure that suits all generations.

Old people should be able to stay in their homes for a long time. The Greens want more homes without barriers. The homes should be affordable. Care should be available nearby. The Greens also want to do something about loneliness.

The Greens want to ensure a dignified end of life for everyone, especially for the most seriously ill. To that end, palliative care is to be expanded, particularly outpatient care and care for children and young people.

Many people want to die at home. The Greens want to make that possible. Palliative care eases pain for very sick people. This help should be available more often, also at home and for children.

The Greens want to strengthen the public health service structurally so it can fully deliver prevention and health education. A state prevention foundation is to pool funds, and local health counseling is to be supported.

Public health offices should get stronger. They should do more to keep people healthy. A new state foundation should collect the money for prevention. Towns should offer more health advice.

The Greens want to digitalize health care more extensively, arguing that Germany has fallen behind in this area. Patient data should be available securely and in line with privacy law, and medical confidentiality should apply to digital data as well.

The Greens want more digital tools in health care. Public health offices should work more digitally. Patient data should be safe. Doctors must keep digital data secret too.

The Greens want hospital planning to be guided by quality of treatment and to divide the state into at least eight care regions with tiered services. The aim is basic care across the state and specialized centers in large hospitals.

The Greens want to plan hospitals in a new way. The state should have at least eight regions. Each region has smaller and larger hospitals. The quality of treatment should matter in planning.

The Greens want on-call medical services, emergency rooms and ambulance services to work together more closely so that people with acute illness get the right help at any time. Integrated emergency centers are to be set up at hospitals.

The Greens want better help in emergencies. On-call doctors, emergency rooms and ambulances should work together better. Hospitals should get emergency centers. Ambulances should get equipment for remote treatment.

The Greens want to tackle the shortage of skilled workers in health care with more training, easier recognition of foreign qualifications and better working conditions. Among other things, at least 200 new places to study medicine are to be created and tuition fees dropped for several professions.

Health care lacks many skilled workers. The Greens want at least 200 new places to study medicine. Some training programs should no longer cost school fees. Skilled workers from abroad should find it easier to work and stay.

The Greens want nurses' responsibility to be reflected in pay and working conditions. They rely on wider collective bargaining coverage, less temp work, far more training places and more independent authority for qualified nurses.

The Greens want to improve nursing jobs. Nurses should get better pay. There should be more training places. Well-trained nurses should be allowed to decide more on their own.

The Greens want care around childbirth to be available close to home and more staff in maternity care. Maternity care is to count as basic care, so that the nearest service can be reached within 30 minutes at most.

The Greens want better help with childbirth. No woman should drive more than 30 minutes to a maternity ward. There should be more midwives. Midwives should get better pay.

The Greens want abortion to be part of standard medical care and available everywhere in the state. They also advocate that abortion should no longer be a criminal offense.

The Greens say the pregnant person alone decides about an abortion. Abortions should be available everywhere in the state. There should be enough doctors and hospitals for this. Abortion should no longer be a crime.

The Greens want to implement the recommendations of the Landespsychiatrieplan (state psychiatry plan) so that people in a mental health crisis get help faster. Outpatient crisis support is to grow, waiting times are to shrink and involuntary commitments are to become less frequent.

The Greens want to help people with mental illness better. There should be more fast help in a crisis. The wait for treatment should be shorter. Fewer people should be sent to a clinic against their will.

The Greens want everyone in Lower Saxony to receive medical care, including people without health insurance or residence papers. To that end, an anonymous health voucher is to be available across the state. The platform justifies this with avoidable severe illness and with lost revenue for practices and hospitals.

Some people have no health insurance. The Greens want them to be able to see a doctor too. They plan an anonymous health voucher. Anonymous means nobody learns the person's name. This way nobody has to fear being deported.

The Greens want to expand home-based and day-care nursing services near where people live and to ease the burden on family caregivers. The platform notes that the number of people needing care is expected to roughly double by 2050 while too few people enter nursing professions.

More and more people need care. The Greens want more care services close to home. There should be more places for day care and short-term care. This should ease the load on family members. Care workers should get better working conditions.

The Greens want to make it easier for civil servants to join statutory health insurance, following the so-called Hamburg model. The platform sees this as a step toward treating them the same as salaried public employees.

Civil servants usually have private health insurance. The Greens want to make public health insurance easier for them. Hamburg is the model. Civil servants and regular employees should be treated more alike.

The SPD wants an investment program to modernize and digitalize hospitals. A rural doctor quota and regional health centers are meant to improve care outside the cities.

The SPD wants to put a lot of money into hospitals. They should become more modern and more digital. There should be more doctors in rural areas. A rural doctor quota should help with that. New health centers should also open in the regions.

The SPD wants better working conditions in nursing and more staff in elder care and hospital nursing. Home care and family caregivers are also to receive support.

The SPD wants to make care work better. There should be more care workers. This applies to elder care and to nursing in hospitals. People who care for relatives at home should also get help.

The SPD wants to abolish school fees in the remaining training programs for social and health professions, such as special-needs care. This is meant to address the shortage of skilled workers in social professions and nursing care.

Social professions lack many skilled workers. For some training programs, young people have to pay school fees. The SPD wants to end these fees. More trainees at schools should also get paid during their training.

The SPD sees health as part of public services, not as a commodity. It wants to end the growing focus on economic interests and return facilities to municipal ownership where possible.

The SPD says health is not a product for sale. Hospitals should not mainly be about making money. Cities and counties should run more hospitals themselves again. The state and federal government should help.

The SPD wants to carry out the hospital reform started with the new state hospital act. Basic care close to home is to remain available everywhere, while highly specialized services are to be concentrated at suitable hospitals. Investment funds are to rise significantly.

The SPD wants to reorganize hospitals in Lower Saxony. There should be a hospital nearby everywhere. Only certain hospitals should do difficult treatments. The state should give more money to hospitals.

The SPD wants to secure medical care in rural areas with regional health and care centers. Doctors are to be distributed more evenly, and outpatient and inpatient care are to be linked more closely.

Rural areas often lack doctors. The SPD wants to set up new health centers there. They offer help around the clock. Doctors should be spread better across the state. Practices and hospitals should work together more closely.

The SPD wants to add more money from the state budget to the special fund for the university hospitals in Hannover and Göttingen in the coming years. The platform puts the investment needs of both hospitals at more than 2.1 billion euros.

The university hospitals in Hannover and Göttingen need renewal. This costs more than 2.1 billion euros. The state has a special pot of money for it. The SPD wants to put more money into this pot.

The SPD wants to reduce the shortage of therapy places and shorten waiting times, especially in rural areas. The state psychiatry act is to be renewed and child and adolescent psychiatry strengthened.

Many people wait a long time for psychotherapy. The SPD wants this to go faster. There should be more places, also in rural areas. Children and young people should get better help.

The SPD wants to create joint dispatch centers that handle both the emergency number 112 and the 116 117 line of the on-call medical service. The aim is to direct patients more effectively and make emergency care easier to understand for people seeking help.

The SPD wants shared dispatch centers for emergencies. Calls to 112 and to 116 117 will arrive there. The centers are open day and night. People should get the right help faster.

The SPD wants to structurally strengthen the public health offices in Lower Saxony. The additional staff funded through the federal-state pact is to be kept beyond 2026 with federal and state money. The platform says the COVID-19 pandemic showed how necessary this is.

The SPD wants to make public health offices stronger. They should get more staff and keep them. There should be money for this after 2026 too. The offices should also get modern technology.

The SPD wants to give civil servants in Lower Saxony access to statutory health insurance in the longer term. To that end, it plans to examine the so-called Hamburg model, under which the employer pays a flat-rate allowance.

Civil servants mostly have private health insurance. The SPD wants to open public health insurance to them. It will look at the Hamburg model for this. In that model, the state pays a fixed share of the cost.

The SPD wants safe, high-quality maternity care close to home across the state. It plans a state action plan of its own and wants to link birth centers and midwives more closely.

The SPD wants good care around birth everywhere in Lower Saxony. The care should be close to home. The state will make its own plan for this. Midwives and birth centers should work together more closely.

The SPD wants to strengthen addiction counseling centers and expand online counseling for people with addictions. The organization Aidshilfe Niedersachsen is to keep receiving support and secure funding.

The SPD wants to strengthen counseling centers for people with addictions. There should be more counseling online. The AIDS support group should keep getting money from the state. Young people should know a lot about AIDS.

The SPD wants to promote digital solutions in health care, including the electronic patient record, e-prescriptions and telemedicine. This is meant to relieve staff and give rural regions access to specialized care. Health data is to be usable for research under strict protection rules.

The SPD wants more digital technology in health care. This includes the electronic patient record and e-prescriptions. Doctors should also be able to treat patients by video. This helps people in rural areas. Patient data should be well protected.

The SPD wants to improve care for seriously ill and dying people and strengthen their self-determination. Hospice and palliative care structures are to keep receiving state funding, and grief support is to be promoted.

The SPD wants to give better help to dying and very sick people. These people should be able to decide about their own lives. Hospices should keep getting money from the state. The SPD also wants to support help for grieving people.

The SPD calls for a nationwide collective wage agreement for care work that the federal labor minister can declare generally binding. Insurers and municipalities are to fully refinance the agreed wages. The platform justifies this with appreciation and more attractive working conditions.

The SPD wants one wage agreement for all care workers in Germany. A wage agreement sets pay. It should apply to all employers. Insurers and local governments should pay for the wages. Care workers aged 40 and older should get regular health retreats.

The SPD wants to create more short-term care and home care services so that people needing care are well looked after in a facility, at home or within the family. Municipal care support centers are to be strengthened to improve counseling.

The SPD wants to create more care services. This includes care at home. It also includes care for a short time in a facility. Young people who need care should get services too. Advice about care should get better.