Green election campaign: Green draft: pension funds and more stable health insurance companies

In the future, the Greens want to use the capital market, similar to the FDP, to stabilize the pension fund and slow down the increase in contributions. This emerges from the draft of their election program. The health insurance companies should be relieved by the fact that non-insurance benefits are financed more through taxes, so that the pressure on employers and insured persons to pay contributions is also alleviated. Various media report on the draft election program; excerpts from it are also available to the German Press Agency. What’s inside?

A so-called citizens’ fund is to be formed from loans and the federal government’s own funds and will invest, among other things, in European and German start-ups and growth companies, as the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” first reported. It should take sustainability and climate protection criteria into account. “We will use the resulting income to strengthen low and medium-sized pensions, which will particularly support women and people in eastern Germany. We also want more people to benefit from private pension provision than before,” the program says.

The FDP had pushed through the stock pension model in the traffic light coalition, with which part of the pension finances should also be invested in the capital market. However, the planned reform was no longer implemented.

Like the Social Democrats, the Greens advocate stabilizing the pension level at 48 percent of average working income in the draft program. They are sticking to retirement at 67, but want to create more incentives for older people to work longer. Furthermore, the party would like to bring MPs and “perhaps civil servants” into statutory pensions. The Greens also want to include self-employed people who are not otherwise insured. The party speaks of a “first step on the way to citizens’ insurance”.

Health and nursing care insurance

Statutory health insurance doctors should increase the proportion of consultation hours for those with statutory health insurance so that patients can receive appointments more quickly, as the “Tagesspiegel” first reported. The Greens want to provide more support to underserved areas. For rural regions – especially in eastern Germany – there should be additional programs for community health nurses, formerly called community nurses, and “medicine on wheels”. In addition to statutory health insurance, private health insurance companies should also have to bear the costs of the hospital reform. Non-insurance benefits such as contributions for citizens’ benefit recipients should be financed more appropriately by the state.

Career family leave should be made easier and more flexible. The Greens want to improve access to day care and expand offerings.

To finance this, in addition to those with statutory health insurance, those with private insurance should also be included in the financial equalization of the health and care system. “We will reform the contribution assessment and, for example, also use capital income to finance our health and care system,” it says in the paper.

Fighting crime

“The fight against organized crime is a priority for us,” write the Greens. The federal and state security authorities should therefore set up a “Joint Center for Organized Crime”, as the newspapers of the Funke media group first reported. The party wants to expand existing authorities into a powerful financial police force in order to combat money laundering. “We have to hit the criminal where it hurts – with the money. That’s why we have to make it easier to confiscate assets that have been obtained through criminal activities.” Regarding the fight against terrorism, it says: “We will check whether the security authorities have all the necessary powers to effectively combat terrorism.”