Equal Health Care for All Act

Key Points

• The bill bans healthcare providers from discriminating against patients based on race, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), disability, age, or religion. It defines "inequitable provision of health care" as care that fails to meet high-quality standards and is discriminatory in intent or effect.
• Healthcare providers would be required to report health outcome data broken down by race, sex, disability, age, and other demographic characteristics. HHS must create a public data repository within one year, with no individually identifiable information included.
• Starting in fiscal year 2026, Medicare's Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program would add equity measures to decide hospital payment adjustments. Hospitals showing a pattern of inequitable care could be excluded from Medicare and Medicaid entirely, though there is an exception if exclusion would hurt access for underserved communities.
• Patients who experience discrimination can file complaints with a renamed Office for Civil Rights and Health Equity, or sue providers in court. The Attorney General can bring civil actions against providers showing a pattern of discrimination, with punitive damages up to $500,000 for a first violation and $1,000,000 for subsequent violations.
• A permanent Federal Health Equity Commission with 8 voting members would be created to monitor the law's implementation and report annually to Congress on progress toward eliminating health disparities. The commission would have subpoena power.
• Grant funding would be available for hospitals to promote equitable care, including bias training, translation services, diverse workforce recruitment, and data tracking. Priority goes to hospitals that receive disproportionate share hospital payments, which typically serve low-income communities.

Votes

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Related Bills

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