Habeck in the Lüneburg town hall: for a strong future of the municipalities!

Habeck in the Lüneburg town hall: for a strong future of the municipalities!

Lüneburg, Deutschland - On January 11, 2025, Lüneburg's mayor Claudia Kalisch met with Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck in the town hall. During the conversation, central demands such as the quick implementation of the hospital reform and better financial support from the municipalities were discussed by the federal government. Kalisch emphasized that the municipalities are financially burdened and called for a new sorting of the financial relationships between the municipalities and the federal government.

The conversation also included local concerns, including promoting the conversion at the salt museum and strengthening Lüneburg as a science location. Robert Habeck assured that the municipalities are relieved of compulsory tasks and recognized the financial burdens and the old debts of many municipalities. He announced that he would represent the local topics at the federal level. Following the conversation, Habeck entered the Golden Book of the Hanseatic City, as Uelzener press reported.

hospital reform 2025

in parallel for discussion about municipal topics, there is a significant reform in healthcare. The Bundestag has decided to abolish the case flat rates in favor of lump sums in order to reduce the economic pressure on hospitals. This reform, which is necessary, according to Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, aims to improve the quality of the care and to ensure that the need is required.

The planned measures include the introduction of "security houses" and "Level 1i Hospitals" in order to provide outpatient specialist services. The aim of these measures is to shorten the paths for patients in rural regions and an improvement in specialist care on site. However, there is resistance to the plan, especially from Bavaria, where the Minister of Health Judith Gerlach plans to call the mediation committee in order to obtain changes. Causes have been expressed that small hospitals could be disadvantaged in rural regions, which is also shared by other federal states such as North Rhine-Westphalia. Associations such as the DEKV and the Virchowbund demand improvements, in particular on the unclear financing issues during the transition phase. Critics fear that many hospitals, in particular small clinics, could be affected by economic problems, such as doctor economy reported.

-transmitted by West-Ost-Medien