A Stronger Society
Samfylkingin wants a stronger society where the healthcare sector and the educational system get the support they need to thrive.
Let's Strengthen Our Society
Samfylkingin wants to develop a first class healthcare system and an educational system that ensures equal opportunities for all, and establish a new economic policy based on invention, innovation and sustainable energy exchange. We want to grow out of the Covid recession, and we completely reject the government's plans for ISK 100 billion cut-backs in the coming years. We want to use common sense to guide tax policies and policies on natural resources, work on a new constitution and give the general public more direct power.
Let's Develop Better Healthcare Services
We intend to turn over a new leaf in healthcare, provide more funding for healthcare services and push for timely system-wide changes and reforms in services to individuals and families. There is a national consensus on the necessity of a better healthcare system for us all, regardless of economic status and residence, and we can’t wait any longer to take necessary actions. We must solve the most pressing problems, as well as developing services for the long term. Behind each name on the waiting lists for necessary procedures, appointments with specialists and interviews with psychologists and psychiatrists are families that need a solution to their problem. Samfylkingin believes that it’s time to listen to healthcare workers, who have long called for reforms, and we must work with them to improve healthcare services by all means possible. We can’t “live with the virus” unless we provide considerably more support to Landspitali National Hospital and healthcare workers
What is Samfylkingin going to do?
- Increase funding for public healthcare services, initiate measures to combat understaffing and shorten waiting lists for urgent procedures.
- Launch a nation-wide initiative in mental health services. Make mental health services part of the public health system. Build modern psychiatric wards and eliminate waiting lists for vital services for children and adolescents. Introduce free psychological services for children and adolescents.
- Increase preventive measures. Immediately improve the system of screening for cervical and breast cancer, and introduce screening for other types of cancer.
- Reduce the load on Landspitali by making systematic changes, providing new housing and service resources for senior citizens, increasing home care services and systematically increasing the number of hospital rooms. Adjust payments for hospital rooms.
- Make better use of the resources provided for the healthcare system by increasing internal auditing in the public sector, as well as providing management, coordination and more efficient monitoring of various aspects of the healthcare system.
- Increase healthcare services for people all over the country with provisions on working conditions and wages for healthcare professionals and investments in technological solutions for telemedicine. Pay all domestic travel expenses for essential health services provided far from people’s homes.
The problems in the healthcare system are apparent in the long waiting lists and repeated overcrowding crisis in Landspitalinn’s emergency services. They also appear in many other parts of the system, including essential psychological and mental health services for children and adolescents, simple medical assistance and maternity services outside the capital area, cervical Cancer screening and nursing facilities for the sick and elderly.
New Economic Policy and Responsible Economic Management
We want Iceland to grow out of the recession, and we reject the government's plans to reduce spending in the coming years. Strong welfare services and a stable exchange rate are requisites for a good and healthy economy. The responsible economic policy is therefore to strengthen infrastructure, make international efforts and support innovation and diversity in the economy. Furthermore, the biggest economic issue of the current decade is a just and sustainable economic transformation for a green future.
What is Samfylkingin going to do?
- Make robust investments in basic infrastructures, particularly those supporting a green energy exchange, and initiate reforms in government operations.
- Reject the current government's plans for ISK 100 billion cuts, which threaten the economy, public services and the economy as a whole.
- Develop a new economic policy, work on a digital transformation in services to individuals and businesses and improve support for new economic pillars, invention, innovation, the international sector and creative fields.
- Simplify the operational environment for small businesses and one-person operations and increase their support. Lower levies such as personal tax allowance. Establish a new type of business entity for entrepreneurs to facilitate the establishment and development of companies with limited obligations for the first two years.
- Develop innovation clusters in all major population areas in collaboration with locals, providing facilities and support for entrepreneurs, business and institutions all over the country.
- Encourage sustainable development of tourism throughout the country and initiate a concerted effort for the maintenance and development of tourist sites. Develop a tourism policy that is likely to increase prosperity.
- Support competition monitoring and pass laws to combat business fraud and social dumping.
While Samfylkingin focuses on providing a robust, green economic growth in the coming years, the government parties, who threaten to disrupt the economy with ISK 100 billion cut-backs, must answer the following questions: Where will the cut-backs be made? Are they going to cut back on healthcare services, education and welfare?
An Educational System that Ensures Equal Opportunities for All
We want real equality in education at all school levels. With a diverse education system based on equality, we can harness the strengths of each individual, thus building a stronger society for the future. We want to create an educational system where no one is left behind, and each student receives education and develops on their own terms. Special support is needed for secondary school students, who have suffered restrictions in their studies and social life during the pandemic, and action must be taken to prevent students from dropping out.
What is Samfylkingin going to do?
- Increase the estimated cost of living for students up to the Ministry of Social Affairs’ estimation of average living expenses, and ensure that the maximum income level follows wage developments.
- Support innovation and development work in education, strengthen support services for teachers and students, and improve access to psychologists, social workers and other support services in schools.
- Support municipalities and schools where a high proportion of children does not have Icelandic as first language, so that Icelandic and native language education can be strengthened at all school levels.
- Increase funding for research and science funds and support increased participation in international innovation and research projects.
- Support art education with reduced tuition fees in Iceland University of the Arts and better access to art education for people all over the country.
- Increase support for vocational training and apprenticeship, and increase supply so more can have access to such education.
Efforts to Combat Special Interests
We want common sense in tax and resource policies, and that the tax system be used to decrease inequality. There is enough for all, but care must be taken in revenue procurement for the State.
What is Samfylkingin going to do?
- Increase fishing quota fees and introduce a special premium on the biggest fishing enterprises (with an annual catch exceeding five thousand cod equivalent tonnes). This will only apply to approximately twenty of the largest companies.
- Make a thorough assessment of the current fisheries management system and propose changes to maximise national revenue from this natural resource, reduce concentration and encourage the entry of new market participants. Explore the effects of implementing auctioning of temporary fishing rights.
- Reintroduce a higher tax bracket for net wealth exceeding ISK 200 million.
- Improve tax surveillance and investigations to reduce tax evasion, and grant prosecuting power to the Directorate of Tax Investigations.
The deck is stacked. Taxes on ordinary people in Iceland are among the highest within the OECD. On the other hand, the groups with the highest income and most assets contribute less to society than elsewhere in the Nordic countries while the lowest-income groups pay more. We want to use the tax system to generate revenue and increase equality in a society where assets are an increasingly dominant factor in providing opportunities for people and their children.
Special interests are dominant in too many areas of society, and the next government must have the courage to address this problem. Fishing quota fees are now lower than tobacco fees. The large fishing entities should not receive more support than other businesses in the form of quotas far below the market value. Samfylkingin wants to ensure national ownership of resources in the constitution so that the nation will receive full payment for the value of the fish in the sea. Samfylkingin considers it most sensible to allocate harvesting rights by auctioning a particular proportion of them each year, but is ready to consider other means to the same ends. Until then, fishing quota fees must be increased.