Equal Health Care for All Act
Sponsored By: Senator Alex Padilla
Introduced
Summary
Prohibits discrimination in health care and builds a federal system to measure and fix inequities. This bill would ban discrimination across federal health programs, require nationwide disaggregated outcome data, change hospital payment metrics to reward equity, create enforcement tools and a new Federal Health Equity Commission, and fund hospital grants to reduce disparities.
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- Families and patients: Would require hospitals and providers to collect and report health outcomes broken down by race, national origin, sex including sexual orientation and gender identity, disability, and age. It creates notices of patient rights and a private right of action with remedies including actual and punitive damages up to $500,000 for a first violation and $1,000,000 for subsequent violations.
- Hospitals and providers: Would add an equitable health care measure to the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program starting in fiscal year 2026 and authorize grants to hospitals within 180 days of enactment, with priority for hospitals that received disproportionate share hospital payments for fiscal year 2025. The Secretary could exclude providers from Medicare or Medicaid for patterns of inequitable care while protecting access for underserved communities.
- Federal oversight and enforcement: Would rename HHS’s Office for Civil Rights to the Office for Civil Rights and Health Equity and create a Federal Health Equity Commission with 8 voting members and 4 nonvoting ex officio members to monitor implementation, hold hearings, issue subpoenas, and report annually to the President and Congress.
*Authorizes unspecified appropriations for the Commission and hospital grants, which would increase federal spending depending on future appropriations.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
6 provisions identified: 5 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Stronger patient civil-rights enforcement
If enacted, the bill would ban unequal health care based on race, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), disability, age, or religion. You could file an administrative complaint within 1 year. The Director must notify respondents within 30 days, allow 60 days to answer, and generally complete investigations in 180 days. If enacted, you could sue in court after administrative steps finish (or after 180 days), but not later than 2 years after the violation ends. The Attorney General could bring pattern-or-practice suits and courts could award damages and punitive damages up to $500,000 for a first violation and $1,000,000 for later violations.
New Federal Health Equity Commission
If enacted, the bill would create a Federal Health Equity Commission with eight voting members and agency ex officio members. Members would serve six-year terms. The Commission could hold hearings, issue subpoenas, report to the President and Congress, and has authorized appropriations 'such sums as may be necessary' starting in fiscal year 2025.
Grants to hospitals for equity
If enacted, HHS would award grants to hospitals within 180 days to help reduce disparities. Grants could pay for bias training, translation services, recruiting and training diverse staff, and tracking disaggregated outcomes. Priority would go to hospitals that received disproportionate hospital payments for fiscal year 2025. Grants must supplement, not replace, other funds.
Medicare hospital pay tied to equity
If enacted, Medicare's Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program would add measures of equitable health care for payments starting in fiscal year 2026. The Secretary would get input from communities of color and protected groups. Measures must account for social determinants of health so hospitals are not unfairly penalized for factors outside their control.
National health data by demographic
If enacted, HHS would require providers who report outcome data to break those data down by race, national origin, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), disability, age, and other factors. The Secretary would publish proposed rules within 90 days. HHS would also create a national, de-identified repository of the broken-down data within one year for benchmarking and enforcement.
Medicare, Medicaid exclusion for biased care
If enacted, the Secretary could exclude providers from Medicare and Medicaid if they are found to have a pattern of inequitable care based on protected characteristics. The Secretary could not exclude a provider if that exclusion would make it harder for underserved or low-income communities to get care.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Alex Padilla
CA • D
Cosponsors
Cory Booker
NJ • D
Sponsored 7/17/2025
Adam Schiff
CA • D
Sponsored 7/17/2025
Ruben Gallego
AZ • D
Sponsored 7/17/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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