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

The AfD wants every maternity clinic to be reachable within 40 minutes at most and births to be attended one-to-one. Doctors, pediatricians and midwives are to be trained in Thuringia and kept in the state.

The AfD wants women to reach a maternity clinic quickly. The trip should take 40 minutes at most. During birth, one midwife should care for just one woman. Thuringia should train and keep more doctors and midwives.

The AfD wants more university places in medicine and dentistry and state scholarships for students who commit to working in underserved regions for ten years. This is meant to secure local outpatient care, especially in rural areas.

Thuringia does not have enough doctors, especially in the countryside. The AfD wants more university places for medicine. Students should get money from the state. In return, they later work for ten years in areas with few doctors.

The AfD wants to preserve rural hospitals providing basic and standard care and not hand them over to private hospital chains. The state should meet its investment obligations, and a state-owned company should ease the financial burden on municipal operators.

The AfD wants to keep small hospitals in the countryside. They should belong to towns, counties or non-profit groups. Private hospital companies should not buy them. The state of Thuringia should give more money to hospitals.

The AfD wants to strengthen care within the family: relatives should receive as much money as care services, get better advice and earn pension credits for their care work. In nursing homes, better working conditions should bring back former care workers.

Many people care for their parents or grandparents at home. The AfD wants to give them more money. They should get as much as a care service. This care work should also count toward their pension. Work in nursing homes should get better too.

The AfD wants applicants in medicine and nursing without a qualification from an EU country to pass an equivalence exam and prove German at C1 level. It is critical of actively recruiting doctors and nurses abroad.

Some doctors and nurses trained outside the EU. The AfD wants them to take an exam. They should also speak German very well. The AfD does not want to actively bring in staff from other countries.

The AfD wants to introduce hygiene rules in health care like those in the Netherlands in order to reduce harm from multi-resistant germs as far as possible. Patients should be tested on admission to a hospital, paid for by the statutory health insurers.

Hospitals have dangerous germs. Many medicines do not work against them. The AfD wants strict hygiene rules like in the Netherlands. Patients should take a test for these germs in the hospital. Public health insurers should pay for the test.

The AfD demands that authorities offer protective measures against attacks to ambulance services, emergency rooms and doctors' offices. According to the platform, assaults on staff and patients are increasing.

Doctors and rescue workers are sometimes attacked. The AfD says this happens more and more. The authorities should help protect them. This covers ambulance services, emergency rooms and doctors' offices.

The AfD rejects the legalization of cannabis and any social normalization of its use. It points to risks to the brain, especially for young people. It is open to medical use.

The AfD is against legal cannabis. It says cannabis can harm the brain. This is especially true for young people. The AfD accepts cannabis as medicine.

The AfD calls for a parliamentary committee of inquiry into COVID policy and wants those responsible taken to court where warranted. Comparable restrictions should never happen again. It also rejects the WHO pandemic treaty.

The AfD wants COVID policy to be examined. A committee of inquiry in the state parliament should do this. People responsible could face court. The AfD is also against the WHO pandemic treaty. The WHO is the World Health Organization.

The BSW wants to push at the federal level for far fewer health insurance funds and to keep contribution rates from rising in the coming years. In the program's view there is enough money in the system, and two-tier medicine should be overcome.

Germany has almost 100 public health insurers. They offer almost the same things. This costs a lot of money for paperwork. The BSW wants far fewer insurers. Contributions should not go up.

The BSW wants to bundle outpatient specialist care in easily reachable centers, similar to the former East German polyclinics. At the same time, the hospital reform should be implemented in a way that preserves basic care, especially in rural areas.

Specialist doctors should work together in one center. That is how the old polyclinics worked. The centers should be easy to reach. Hospitals in the countryside should still offer good basic care.

Doctors trained in Jena or at private universities should commit through funding programs to work in Thuringia for five to ten years. The BSW also wants to strengthen telemedicine, prevention and health education.

Thuringia needs more doctors. People who study medicine in Jena should then work in Thuringia. This should last five to ten years. Funding programs help with this. Video doctor visits and prevention should also grow.

The BSW wants a cap on nursing home costs: residents' own share should not exceed the average pension. In the program's view, sharply rising co-payments have turned nursing homes into a poverty trap.

A place in a nursing home is very expensive. Many people become poor because of it. The BSW wants a limit on the costs. Residents should pay no more than an average pension. The state and federal government should cover the rest.

The CDU wants to secure basic medical care in rural areas: family doctors, pediatricians, gynecologists, dentists and pharmacies should be no more than 20 minutes away. To that end, one fifth of university places would go to future rural doctors and pharmacists, and new practices would get more support.

Everyone should reach a doctor or pharmacy within 20 minutes. This should also be true in rural areas. The CDU wants to reserve university places for people who will later work in the countryside. Suitability should matter more than school grades. People who open a practice should get more help.

The CDU wants to establish rural nurses (Landschwestern) in villages to provide basic medical care for less mobile people, supplemented by community care workers. Public transit would also be expanded with flexible rides to doctors and hospitals.

Rural areas should get rural nurses. These are medical assistants with extra training. They make home visits and check in digitally with the family doctor. Community care workers would join them. Buses should get people to the doctor more easily.

The CDU wants to tackle hospital planning immediately and give every site a future as a place of medical care. A transformation fund and higher state investment funding are to pay for restructuring the clinics.

No hospital site in Thuringia should disappear. Every site should keep providing medical care. The CDU wants to give clinics more money for rebuilding and equipment. Difficult planned operations should take place in large, specialized hospitals.

The CDU wants to develop a master plan for ground ambulance services, air rescue and intensive care transfers, and provide more money and staff. New vehicle types, additional helicopter bases and more first responders are meant to close gaps in emergency care.

The CDU wants to improve emergency medical services. There should be more money and more staff. Rescue helicopters should be able to fly at night too. Not every call should have to end at a hospital. Every town should have defibrillators. These are devices that help when a heart stops.

The CDU wants to create more training and university places in the health professions to keep young people in Thuringia. Training in allied health professions is to remain free of tuition fees, and documentation duties are to be cut so that more time is left for patients.

The CDU wants more places for training and study in health jobs. Young people should stay in Thuringia. Training should still cost no school fees. Doctors and nurses should have less paperwork.

The CDU wants to make nursing care work more attractive through more authority for skilled staff, fewer documentation duties and better working conditions. Caregivers who left the profession are to be won back, overtime in care is to be tax-free, and a voluntary "Thuringia Year" is to introduce young people to social professions.

The CDU wants to make care jobs more attractive. Skilled care workers should decide more on their own. They should have less paperwork. They should pay no tax on overtime. Young people should be able to do a voluntary year in Thuringia.

The CDU wants to recruit care workers from abroad for Thuringia in a targeted way. Foreign qualifications are to be recognized more simply and much faster, because the party sees no other way to meet the demand for staff in care.

The CDU wants to bring care workers from other countries. Their qualifications should be accepted faster. This should also become easier. The CDU says Thuringia needs these workers for care.

The CDU wants to plan and fund care infrastructure in a coordinated way through a state care plan. Gaps in provision are to be identified and care staff steered to underserved regions; tele-care and digital aids are to receive state money.

The CDU wants to plan care better across the state. The state should see where care workers are missing. More care workers should go there. The state should also fund care by phone and internet.

The CDU wants to make care cheaper for those affected and to press for a care reform at the federal level. The state is to co-finance investments by care facilities, and owner-occupied homes and retirement savings are no longer to be drawn on for care costs.

The CDU wants care to cost less. The state should give care homes money for investments. Then residents pay less. Nobody should have to sell their own home to pay for care. The CDU also wants a federal care reform.

The CDU wants to introduce a state care allowance (Landespflegegeld) for people needing care from care grade II. The money is meant to let them treat themselves or give financial recognition to the people who care for them.

The CDU wants a state care allowance. This is money from the state for people who need care. People get it from care grade 2. They can use the money for themselves. Or they can give it to their helpers.

The CDU wants to ease the burden on people who care for relatives. Time spent caring is to count more toward working life, care insurance contributions and pensions; working hours are to become more flexible, and advice and short-term care services are to be expanded.

The CDU wants to help people who care for relatives. Time spent caring should count more for the pension. People who cared should later pay less for care insurance. A website should show free places in care homes. There should be more short-term care.

The Left wants the public sector to invest heavily in health and medical care. This includes hospital planning by the state. In the party's view, hospitals should serve people rather than corporate profits.

The Left wants to spend a lot of money on health. The money should come from the state. The state should plan well where hospitals are. Hospitals should be there for people, not for profit.

The Left wants statutory health insurers to cover the full cost of contraceptives so that contraception does not depend on income. A menstrual leave law is to be added. Research and care are to pay more attention to differences between the sexes.

The Left wants health insurance to pay fully for contraceptives. Contraception should not fail because of money. There should be a law on time off during menstruation. Medicine should treat women and men equally well.

The Left wants to secure medical care close to home across Thuringia, including in places where practices struggle to find successors. It relies on the rural doctor quota, additional scholarships, start-up grants for practices, and easier access to medical and dental degree programs.

The Left wants enough doctors in every part of Thuringia. Rural areas in particular lack doctors. Students should get money if they plan to work in the countryside later. People who open a practice should get money too.

The Left wants to preserve pharmacies close to where people live, especially in rural areas. It backs pharmacies run by their owners and opposes mail-order and chain pharmacies, arguing that only this model ensures good advice and short distances.

The Left wants to keep pharmacies nearby. This matters most in the countryside. The pharmacist should own the pharmacy. The party is against mail-order pharmacies and pharmacy chains.

The Left wants to substantially strengthen the public health service, citing the experience of the pandemic. Municipalities are to get support in setting up their own medical care centers as a public counterweight to private providers.

The Left wants stronger public health offices. They were very important in the pandemic. Towns should be able to set up their own medical centers. The party wants a public option next to private companies.

The Left wants to strengthen local maternity care, especially in rural areas, and commits to free choice of where to give birth. Its stated goal is for every woman in labor to be cared for by one midwife of her own.

The Left wants better help for births. This matters most in the countryside. Pregnant women should choose where to have their baby. Every woman should have her own midwife during birth.

The Left wants to keep every hospital site in Thuringia and considers clinic closures unacceptable. It calls on the federal government for adequate funding without per-case flat rates and wants to bring hospitals more into public ownership.

The Left wants to keep all hospitals in Thuringia. No clinic should close. The federal government should pay hospitals differently and better. More hospitals should belong to the state or to towns.

The Left wants to push in the Bundesrat for a statutory health and long-term care insurance that all working groups must pay into. The party sees this citizens' insurance as necessary to fund long-term care better.

The Left wants one insurance for everyone. Everyone should pay into the same health and care insurance. This includes civil servants, self-employed people, and lawmakers. That should bring more money for care.

The Left wants to introduce a Thuringian state care allowance to ease the burden on people who need care and their relatives. Care costs are also to be limited, and family caregivers are to get better advice.

The Left wants a new care allowance from the state. People with care level 2 or higher get up to 600 euros a year. Care should not become too expensive. Relatives who give care should get more advice.

The Left supports binding staffing requirements in long-term care and in hospitals, backed by sector-wide collective agreements. Care workers are to get higher pay and better working conditions so that more people work in these jobs.

The Left wants fixed rules for the number of care workers. The rules should apply to all care homes and hospitals. Care workers should earn more money. That way more people should work in care.

The Left wants a drug policy built on health and self-determination that does not criminalize use. Addiction prevention, counseling, and drug checking are to be expanded.

The Left does not want to punish people for using drugs. Health and protecting young people matter more. There should be more counseling against addiction. People should be able to have drugs tested for dangerous substances.

The SPD wants a systematic review of the social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and of the protective measures. To do this, the Thuringian state parliament is to set up an Enquete-Kommission (a parliamentary study commission). The platform considers Thuringia's handling of the pandemic a success but still sees a need for a review.

The SPD wants to look back at the COVID years. The state parliament should set up a commission for this. The commission should study the effects of the pandemic. It should also study the effects of the COVID rules. The focus is on vulnerable people.

The SPD wants to support Jena University Hospital with guaranteed annual funding increases and a third construction phase. This is meant to improve patient care, especially emergency medicine, as well as conditions for study, teaching and research.

The SPD wants to strengthen the university hospital in Jena. The hospital should get more money every year. More buildings should be added. This should improve care for sick people, especially in emergencies.

The SPD wants to keep all hospital and care sites in Thuringia and to prevent further privatization of municipal hospitals. A special fund of 100 million euros is to enable networked, digital care close to where people live.

The SPD wants to keep all hospitals in Thuringia. Hospitals owned by cities and counties should not go to private companies. There should be an extra 100 million euros for modern care. Doctor guides should help bring doctors to rural areas.

The SPD wants to reduce bottlenecks in psychotherapy for children and adolescents, which the program says grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. Easily accessible support is to be expanded, and schools and kindergartens are to be made aware of possible problems early on.

Many children and teenagers wait a long time for mental health therapy. The SPD wants more help that is easy to reach. Schools and kindergartens should watch for problems early. The first talk with a therapist should also be possible by video.

The SPD wants to push at state and federal level for quality and reliable provision in maternity care. It plans a tiered system with easily reachable maternity wards across the state and enough well-trained midwives.

The SPD wants women everywhere in Thuringia to be able to reach a maternity clinic. Small and large clinics should work closely together. There should be enough midwives. Their job should become more attractive. An overview should compare all maternity clinics in plain language.

The SPD wants to strengthen the public health service, meaning above all the local health offices, for the long term. To do so, more future doctors are to be recruited for this work, including through course content and a scholarship.

The SPD wants to strengthen the public health offices. Medical school should teach more about public health. Part of the training should be possible in a health office. Students who want to work there later should get a scholarship. That is money for their studies.

The SPD wants to put the public health service (ÖGD) on the footing of a dedicated state law, replacing the current regulation as its basis. Local health offices are to get a uniform minimum staffing level, and employees are to be paid better.

Local health offices are part of the public health service. The SPD wants a new state law for it. Every office should have enough staff. The workers should get better pay.

The SPD wants to advance research and treatment for post-COVID and long COVID and set up contact points across the state for illnesses that follow viral infections. It also plans a statewide strategy for addiction prevention.

Some people stay sick for a long time after COVID. This is called long COVID. The SPD wants help centers for them everywhere in the state. Doctors should get more training on it. The SPD also wants a plan to prevent addiction.

The SPD wants to cut energy and resource use in health care, which the platform says accounts for an estimated five percent of CO2 emissions. To do so, it plans investments in sustainable infrastructure, above all buildings.

Hospitals and clinics use a lot of energy. That harms the climate. The SPD wants to spend money on better buildings. Health care should use fewer materials.

The SPD wants to keep pharmacy coverage across the state, strengthen pharmacy training, and create incentives for opening pharmacies in underserved areas. New professional roles are also meant to ease the load on doctors.

The SPD wants to keep pharmacies everywhere in the state. More people should be able to become pharmacists. People who open a pharmacy in a rural area should get help. New health jobs should take work off doctors.

The SPD wants to fund the Anonymer Krankenschein Thüringen (anonymous health voucher) on a permanent basis and open it to people without health insurance. Funding is to rise in line with need.

With the anonymous health voucher, people can see a doctor without giving their name. The SPD wants to pay for it permanently. People without health insurance should be able to use it too. There should be more money for it.

The SPD wants to limit the share of care costs that people in need of care must pay themselves. As a first step, these out-of-pocket shares are to be frozen at today's level and anything above reimbursed, so that care, in the party's view, does not become a poverty risk.

Care in a nursing home costs a lot. People pay part of it themselves. The SPD wants to limit that part. At first it should stop rising. People should get back what they pay above that.

The SPD wants to support family caregivers with outreach advice that is regionally networked, turning the care support centers into mobile services. The state is also to fund additional short-term care places, because the lack of them, according to the platform, overburdens many relatives.

Many people care for family members at home. The SPD wants to help them. Advisers should come to the families. There should be more places for short-term care. Then caregivers can take a break.

The SPD wants to appoint a state-level commissioner for care and patients who acts as an ombudsperson and reports regularly on the state of care. Publicly available regional care statistics are to form the basis for statewide care planning.

The SPD wants a new office for care and patients. People can turn to it with problems. The office should write regular reports. There should also be exact numbers on care in every region.