Here is the Board’s Proposal for the 2024 CEEP’s Social Affairs and Healthcare Chapter.
It will be put to vote in a motion at the 13th Council Meeting. Feel free to discuss it here or even submit counterproposals or amendments to the discussion here. Please note that although this discussion and thread is open to all pirates, final motions and amendments need to be supported and submitted by a Council Member though their delegates.
Social Affairs and Healthcare
All inhabitants of the EU have the right to the highest attainable standard of the quality of health care and health education, no matter how health systems have been structured (private, public or mixed).
This includes preventive, curative and palliative health care, as well as mental health care. It also includes the underlying social determinants of health, such as safe food, potable water, basic sanitation and adequate housing, safe and healthy working conditions and a healthy environment.
An adequate level of health care can only be provided if the health care workers are paid a decent wage and enough equipment and medicines are available. Training and employing enough medical professionals is necessary to reduce waiting lists and to keep medical professionals working in the field.
The costs of Health care should either be paid for by public funds or public health insurance or a combination. Health insurance should be mandatory and affordable for all EU citizens regardless of their income level, and coordinated between EU countries.
Availability & Comfort of the Patient
Pirates want an equal access to health care for every inhabitant of the EU, irrespective of the resources available to a state, and support:
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No discrimination (direct or indirect) in access to health care, irrespective of the resources available to a state.
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Health goods and services should be accessible to everyone. States must ensure that no persons face barriers in accessing their right to health including the access to information about health and health services.
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Health goods and services affordable for everybody regardless of their income level.
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Health laws and policies designed and implemented in a transparent manner and with meaningful participation of persons affected by it. All health systems must include a framework for accountability, which should include access to effective judicial or other appropriate measures for violations of the right to health.
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Free access to prenatal care for all pregnant women, with focus on both physical and mental well being.
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Adequate perinatal care
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Free guidance by public health nurses and doctors, monitoring physical and mental health and development of children in their families.
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Preventing and fighting poverty. Poverty leads to poor health in children by e.g. poor diet, bad housing, stress, feelings of inferiority.
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To ensure mobility of nurses within the EU, all countries should conform to the same minimum academic standards in training.
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Easier cross-border care utilization: Improving opportunities to use health care systems abroad on the account of domestic health insurance companies.
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Cross-border care should not lead to the implementation of policies that violate privacy, nor against decentralization of data or patients control and consent over the use of their data.
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EU health card for the world: Negotiation of the validity of the European Health Insurance Card (Blue Card) in the non-EU countries.
Patents and Technology
Reducing the number and lifetime of patents for medicines or at least avoiding administrative prolongation of patents. Publicly funded medicines, including e.g COVID related vaccines, should be available under patent-free open-source license.
Pirates demand that the Europe strengthens its sovereignty on active ingredient and medicines production.
Pirates demand that Europe strengthens its sovereignty in production and development of biomedical equipment.
Apps and equipment that measure biomedical data, including menstruation and firness apps, should fully comply to the GDPR and should never be used for Biometric Mass Surveillance.
The European Pirate Party demands adequate data protection for the European Health Data Space. We understand that health data is useful for science, but it can be misused by e.g. insurance companies and employers.
Health data must be anonymized and encrypted. To this end, it must be clearly defined where they are stored and when and by whom they may be used.
Right to Bodily Autonomy
The European Pirate Party considers bodily autonomy to be an important human right, therefor all medical procedures must be based on informed consent obtained without coercion.
Bodily autonomy implies that safe and legal abortion be available to all, no matter the reason for their choice. We also demand free access to contraceptives, including both male and female sterilization.
That all medical procedures must be based on informed consent obtained without coercion is particularly true for those related to sexual and reproductive health and rights. As such, we demand the criminalization of sex corrective procedures done on intersex infants unless it is absolutely medically neccesary.
In addition, we demand an informed consent model for gender affirming care, that it is made affordable and also accessible. Neither legal gender recognition nor access to medical or surgical sex reassignment should be made conditional on abusive requirements such as psychiatric diagnosis, normative gender expression, or medical procedures.
We will work towards creating a safe and inclusive environment where everyone can freely express their gender identity and sexual orientation, without fear of discrimination or violence.
Free Movement of Workers
EU nationals working in another EU country have to overcome dozens of administrative obstacles to work in and fully integrate into another EU country – especially different social security systems, different nature of the payment into these systems, registration to health care systems etc. Therefore the EU should encourage its Member states to continue in removing administrative barriers to the Free movement of Workers through the harmonisation of social security systems and public healthcare systems, especially the harmonisation of payments into these systems and sharing the information between the member states.
Fighting Discrimination
We propose policies that promote equal rights and opportunities for all individuals regardless of gender or sexual orientation. We prioritize mainstreaming gender equality and LGBTI rights. This would involve ending discrimination and violence against women and LGBTI individuals, promoting reproductive health and rights, and ensuring equal pay and employment opportunities. We believe that recognition of same-sex marriage and parenthood should be enshrined. Just transition
As advocates of the digital and green transitions, we acknowledge the interconnectedness of social, digital, and environmental issues, especially in certain regions. We therefore promote adequate EU funding to the most impacted regions, and for the promotion of new required skills. We push for life-long learning via up-skilling and re-skilling for instance. Ensuring that science, technology, engineering and mathematics sectors are appropriately staffed, with a view of integrating underrepresented categories is a priority.
As part of no one left behind policy, we do believe that providing funding to vulnerable persons/households for their transition regarding transport, heating, insulation, etc. is necessary.
Social Standards
Pirates defend the idea of universal access to education, knowledge, healthcare and adequate social protection. On the latter, we need to protect vulnerable groups from poverty and exclusion, including through policies that guarantee a minimum income and adequate social services.
Workers shall be granted appropriate and good working conditions. Teleworking and platform work are becoming more and more prominent but are still facing regulatory gaps. We must ensure that new forms of work are not enhancing employees surveillance nor degrading their working conditions and rights.
European countries shall ensure adequacy of wages for the employees working in European Economic Area. While we recognize impossibility to define it uniformly in current Europe, we believe the employees shall be provided with transparent access to information and proper legal protection to be able to negotiate fair wage. No double standard for refugees and other non-citizens working in Europe shall be allowed. Further research and pilot projects for universal basic income are welcomed.
European Pension Fund
Our goal is a truly social Europe with comparable social rules and comparable pension conditions for all Europeans.The pension regulations should not install an even fiercer race of the poor against the very poor!
Multiple countries face crises of national pension schemes due to demographic changes and migration between European countries. Therefore Pirates propose foundation of common European pension fund. The fund shall not be considered a replacement of national pension schemes but rather additional complement to them to provide necessary minimum income where needed. No one in Europe shall face poverty in the elder-hood. The pensions shall be available fairly to everybody, without needless restrictions based on age or other criteria.