CDU’s General Secretary Carsten Linnemann plans an “actual social reform” after the federal election, with a focus on pension, health and care, according to an interview with the news portal T-Online.
“I believe these three topics are central” said the CDU politician. “We need a group that focuses on this issue after the election. A core goal of the next coalition must be that contributions do not continue to rise, but rather decrease.” Linnemann has been annoyed for a long time, he said, by the fact that “insurance-foreign benefits are financed through contributions.” “There is a huge potential there” he added.
The fact that the statutory health insurance system spends around 10 billion euros a year on the health insurance of recipients of social benefits, he said, shows “that the worm is in the wood.” Instead, the health insurance of social benefit recipients should be financed through taxes, Linnemann found. “Because it is a common task, not the task of the contributors. I am ready to lead this debate. I know that then the pressure on the topic of taxes will increase again. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it” he said.
To consolidate the financing of health and care, Linnemann demands that the healthcare system be “streamlined” to be more efficient. “There is still a lot of potential that we can, for example, through consistent digitalization and the expansion of outpatient treatment options, tap” said the CDU politician. “That’s just two examples of how we can save costs and at the same time improve the care of patients.