Ines Schwerdtner, chair of the Left Party, slammed the CDU‑economic council’s draft plan to scrap public dental services as a “frontal attack on 90 percent of the country”.
Speaking to the “Spiegel”, she argued the proposal illustrates the “new elegant world of the Economic Union”: the state will continue to pay for housekeeping, child care and road safety, but citizens will be forced to bear the costs of their own teeth. She warned that ordinary workers will soon have to decide whether to pay for a dental filling or for their children’s lunch.
Schwerdtner said that especially poorer people suffer more chronic illness and die much earlier, and called for a serious reform. She urged that the Union treat the welfare state as a stabilizing anchor rather than a problem.
Her criticism targets the CDU‑economists’ reform paper, which claims dental treatments can be adequately covered by private insurance and should no longer burden taxpayers, while also recommending cuts to unemployment benefits.
