Labor wants to spend one billion to make it cheaper to go to the doctor – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country

On Thursday, the largest opposition party in the Storting will present its alternative budget.

Labor has moved 8.4 billion, compared to the budget of the government.

– We are correcting a number of the anti-social cuts, but we must build up the welfare initiatives gradually, says the Labor Party’s deputy leader and fiscal policy spokesperson Hadia Tajik at the party’s press conference on Thursday.

Among other things, they will reduce the number of patients on the GP list by 50 patients per GP, and implement a trust reform throughout public Norway.

– When more and more people get private health insurance through the workplace, there is an erosion of the health care system, says Tajik.

It will also be cheaper to go to the doctor, if the party gets what they want.

– It is completely unheard of that the Conservative government in the middle of a corona pandemic will make it more expensive to get sick. The Labor Party wants to clean it up, says Tajik to NRK.

At the same time, they want to free up capacity at GPs by shortening the patient lists by 50 patients per GP.

– We want to solve the GP crisis, says Tajik.

Retrieves one billion from the wealth tax

The cut in wealth tax from the government of over one billion is taken out. Instead, the Labor Party will use the money to get the exemption card limit down to NOK 2,460 in 2021.

– In our proposal for the state budget, we propose that people get relief from 700 kroner to 2,000 kroner through changes in the deductible ceiling, so that for quite a few more it will be cheaper to seek medical help and to buy medicine, says Tajik.

The government planned to merge the current scheme with two deductible ceilings to a common ceiling of NOK 3,183.

Around 1.1 million Norwegians would receive an extra expense of up to NOK 723 a year with the new scheme, while 183,000 Norwegians would save 1,453 kroner.

Will spend more oil money than the government

Under a Labor government, there will be less taxes for ordinary people with ordinary incomes, according to Hajik.

According to the Tajik, people with lower incomes will pay less tax with the Labor Party’s alternative budget:

– The rationale for the tax promise is about predictability and distribution – both people and companies must be sure of what kind of tax scheme they will face. We need to distribute more, and ordinary people need to get more, she says.

In addition, the Labor Party will spend more oil money on crisis measures during the corona pandemic. In the alternative budget, an extra 14.7 billion has been raised from the Government Pension Fund Global.

While the government decided to use 3.2 per cent of the oil fund, the Labor Party will use 3.4 per cent. The action rule is 3.0 percent.

Will hire more in the state

The Labor Party also plans to collect 2.4 billion from the use of consultants for which the government has set aside money. The consulting contracts between private actors and the state usually run over several years.

– We will spend a large part of the money on hiring people in permanent positions to build professional environments in the public sector, says Tajik, who will spend 1.2 billion on government employment.

– Will the Labor Party hypothetically terminate or revise the consultancy contracts that run to move the use of money to employment in the state?

– We make budgets we would manage. The government would also have had the opportunity to plan for such reductions, well in advance. At least a Labor-led government would do that, she says.

Right: – Will affect jobs in the districts

Parliamentary representative Vetle Wang Soleim (H) in the finance committee believes that Tajik will come up with easy cuts that will hit the districts.

– It is quite critical if they actually want to stifle the development of, for example, digital services for business and citizens throughout the country, but I can understand that such general cuts are what the Labor Party must resort to to pay for their promises when they choose to leave most of the tax relief that Støre called «Norwegian tax scandal», stay standing, he says.