Equal Health Care for All Act

Equal Health Care for All Act, introduced in the Senate by Senator Padilla and joined by Senators Booker, Schiff, and Gallego, would overhaul federal efforts to ensure health care is provided equitably and without discrimination. The bill aims to prohibit inequitable provision of health care, require extensive data collection and reporting on health outcomes disaggregated by race, national origin, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), disability, age, and other factors, and weave equity measures into federal payment programs for hospitals. It would also create a new Office for Civil Rights and Health Equity within the Department of Health and Human Services, establish a Federal Health Equity Commission to monitor progress, and provide grants to hospitals to fund equity-focused programs. In addition, the bill authorizes the possibility of excluding providers from Medicare and Medicaid for patterns of inequitable care, with a protection for underserved communities in certain cases. Key features include mandatory reporting of disaggregated data (with a federally maintained, non-identifiable data repository), expansion of hospital quality measures to include equitable health care, a comprehensive enforcement framework with administrative complaints, private lawsuits, and civil actions led by the Attorney General, and a grants program to help hospitals implement bias training, interpretation services, diverse staffing, data tracking, and cultural competency efforts. The act also rebrands and restructures the Department’s civil rights office to emphasize health equity.