Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

POLITICS

COMPARE: How can Austria fix its healthcare problems?

Healthcare reform is a central issue in Austria’s upcoming elections, with parties presenting a range of proposals. From expanding home care to pushing back private healthcare, here's how each party wants to change the system.

Published: 23 September 2024 11:43 CEST
COMPARE: How can Austria fix its healthcare problems?
(Photo by Natanael Melchor on Unsplash)

Austria’s political parties are gearing up for the national elections on Sunday, and healthcare and care services are key to their proposals. 

Each major party has distinct visions for the future of Austria’s healthcare system, from pushing for more public funding and access to prioritising private care options or free choice of insurers.

While all parties agree that investment in the healthcare system and improving care is essential, their strategies vary significantly. 

The conservative ÖVP, for instance, focuses on home care and investing €11 billion into healthcare, while the centre-left SPÖ wants to reduce private medical influence. Meanwhile, the far-right FPÖ and Greens each have their unique approach, with the former focusing on personal responsibility and home care and the latter aiming to ensure equal access to public healthcare.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What the political parties in Austria’s election race stand for

Austrian media has outlined each party’s proposals based on their election programme. Here’s what you need to know:

Manual widget for ML (class=”ml-manual-widget-container”)

ÖVP: major investment in healthcare

The Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) is promising to inject €11 billion into the healthcare and care sectors, focusing on reducing patient waiting times and creating 800 new jobs for statutory health insurance doctors. 

They propose introducing a professional obligation for doctors after training to help ensure a more stable system.

Additionally, the ÖVP is committed to expanding home care by training more staff or recruiting caregivers from abroad, signalling a clear preference for in-home care solutions over institutional care.

SPÖ: a push for public healthcare

The Social Democrats (SPÖ) are campaigning to strengthen public healthcare and reduce the influence of private medical practices. 

They are proposing a legal right to treatment within 14 days, increased funding for social insurance, and free dental care for children and young adults up to the age of 23. 

The SPÖ also aims to reduce co-payments and create a framework law for 24-hour care. Focusing on solidarity-based financing, the party seeks to make healthcare accessible to all while also working to make care professions more attractive through better training and conditions.

READ ALSO: How can Austria solve the significant challenges facing its education system?

A general view shows the General Hospital in Vienna. (Photo by DIETER NAGL / AFP)

FPÖ: personal responsibility and home care

The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) promotes a healthcare system based on “personal responsibility” and opposes compulsory vaccinations, particularly in light of the World Health Organisation’s pandemic treaty. 

Their healthcare manifesto calls for limiting medical and nursing care for asylum seekers or “illegal migrants” to essential services. 

In line with their slogan “home over inpatient,” the FPÖ prioritises home-based care over institutional care, encouraging patients to receive care in their homes rather than hospitals or care facilities.

Greens: equal access and mental health

The Greens focus on a healthcare system that guarantees equal access for all, promoting their motto “E-card instead of credit card,” which echoes their stance against multi-tier medicine. 

They envision a single social insurance system, more outpatient care options, and expanded mental health services. 

The Greens propose better pay and shorter working hours to improve conditions for carers. They also call for federal and state governments to cover social insurance for 24-hour caregivers, a key part of their strategy to improve care in Austria.

READ ALSO: COMPARE: How much do Austria’s political parties care about the climate crisis?

NEOS: healthcare reform and free choice of insurer

The liberal NEOS party advocates for complete healthcare reform, proposing a system where healthcare funding comes from a single source and patients can choose their health insurer.

Their campaign promotes “outpatient before inpatient” care and suggests a care guarantee whereby health insurance must cover the cost of private doctors if adequate care cannot be provided. 

The NEOS also aim to make home care more attractive and is pushing for improved care prevention measures to help people maintain independence in old age.

READ ALSO: Everything foreigners need to know about the Austrian healthcare system

BIER Party: more community nurses and shorter wait times

The Beer Party (BIER) also focuses on healthcare, particularly reducing long waiting times for operations and hospital overcrowding.

They propose increasing the number of community nurses and expanding primary care centres to alleviate the strain on hospitals.

The BIER party also advocates for tax-free overtime and remuneration for additional services in the nursing sector, aiming to make healthcare professions more appealing.

KPÖ: health before profits

The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) is running on a platform of “health before profits” and seeks to eliminate multi-tier medicine.

Their healthcare strategy involves significant public investment to strengthen Austria’s healthcare infrastructure. To finance these improvements, the KPÖ proposes abolishing the maximum contribution limit for higher earners in social insurance.

In the care sector, they plan to expand training opportunities, improve staffing ratios, and reduce working hours for healthcare professionals.

READ NEXT: Is it worth it to get private health insurance in Austria?

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

Austria’s far right woos anti-vaxxers with fund for vaccine ‘victims’

Anti-vaxxer Martin Rutter is delighted he has been able to apply for public funds for "vaccination victims" from his far-right allies who run the province around Vienna.

Published: 25 September 2024 09:11 CEST
Austria's far right woos anti-vaxxers with fund for vaccine 'victims'

The controversial project, pushed through by the Freedom Party (FPÖ) — which looks set to win this week’s Austrian elections — has raised the ire of other parties but has drawn thousands of applications.

“I have an association that takes care of vaccination victims,” said Rutter, who is known for spreading conspiracy theories online.

The 41-year-old helped organise massive demonstrations against the conservative-led government’s Covid measures, also attended by the FPÖ’s leader Herbert Kickl.

The far right is tapping into still seething voter anger about restrictions during the Covid pandemic, which it hopes will propel them to power on Sunday.

“The FPÖ was the only party that did not support these measures,” Rutter told AFP, describing them as an “orgy” of restrictions.

Cash for jab refuseniks

Rutter — who peddles conspiracy narratives online, including recommending fruits to cure cancer — has applied for money from a €31.3 million($ 34.8-million) fund set up by the Lower Austria region, which the FPÖ co-governs, for “information events” he organises.

READ ALSO: Covid in Austria – Should you get vaccinated this year?

The fund was set up last year to “repair” the “poor crisis management” of the pandemic, according to Maximilian Fender-Tarczaly, who works for the FPÖ state councillor in charge of the project.

In a written reply to AFP, he said the project is meant to support “victims… who are suffering from the various consequences of the disease, the measures and the vaccination.”

“The spectrum is broad… mental health problems, isolation, vaccination impairments, fines for non-compliance with health measures,” he wrote.

By July, some 5,700 applications had been approved, and €3.7 million had been paid out, but “until now no money has been paid” to Rutter, Fender-Tarczaly said then.

The FPÖ is keen to roll out the project nationally, railing in its election manifesto against the government’s “unprecedented indoctrination and brainwashing” during the pandemic.

‘Irresponsible’

Health Minister Johannes Rauch of the Greens party described the project as “irresponsible”, arguing that out of 20 million vaccinations, just 200 people have suffered side effects.

“Vaccination has saved millions of lives, and if the willingness to be vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella also decreases, this jeopardises the lives of children,” he said in May.

READ ALSO: Are vaccinations compulsory for children in Austria?

The opposition Social Democrats have accused the FPÖ of “losing all moral sense” by offering a “bonus” to those who “attack elected officials”, while the opposition liberal NEOS party has slammed the far right for pandering to its base.

The pandemic — and in particular the government’s move to make vaccination mandatory, which was later scrapped — have led to lasting “polarisation” in the Alpine nation of nine million people, according to Julia Partheymueller, a political scientist from Vienna University.

She argued that the vaccination “victims” project was a means to criticise “the government’s mistakes” and had come from a “desire for revenge” rather than reconciliation.

SHOW COMMENTS