Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced the Equal Health Care for All Act, bicameral legislation that aims to make equal access to medical care a protected civil right to help address the racial inequities and structural failures in America’s health care system that have led to higher mortality rates in communities of color. The Equal Health Care for All Act would establish a definition for inequitable health care to help ensure that hospitals provide the same high-quality health care services to all patients, regardless of race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, or religion.

According to bill sponsors, the Equal Health Care for All Act aims to remedy structural and systemic failures in America’s health care system that have led to Black, Hispanic, and indigenous individuals disproportionately suffering from a range of illnesses, from asthma to heart disease. Black women are more likely than white women to die from breast cancer and during childbirth. Hispanic individuals suffer from higher rates of chronic diseases, including an 80 percent higher rate of diabetes.

Specifically, the Equal Health Care for All Act would:

• Require the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary to promote regulations requiring health care providers and facilities to disaggregate data on health outcomes by demographic characteristics;
• Require inclusion of quality measures of equitable health care in hospital value-based purchasing programs;
• Empower Medicare and Medicaid providers to enforce equitable health care standards;
• Rename the HHS “Office on Civil Rights” to “Office of Civil Rights and Health Equity;”
• Prohibit health care providers from providing inequitable health care to patients;
• Establish a Federal Health Equity Commission; and
• Authorize grants for hospitals to promote equitable health care outcomes.

In favor:

“Everyone deserves equal access to comprehensive, high-quality health care, free from discrimination,” said Senator Booker. “However, this is not the reality for most communities across our country, with communities of color, especially women of color, bearing the disproportionate burden of poor health outcomes due to a lack of access to quality medical care. The Equal Health Care for All Act is legislation to combat the stark inequalities that exist in our health care system, and ensure every American has access to affordable, equitable care.”

“By gutting billions of dollars for hospitals and other essential Medicaid services, the Trump Administration is hurting our patients and their pocketbooks in communities across the country,” said Senator Padilla. “Our bill would treat equitable health care as a civil right to provide every patient with the access to the high-quality care they deserve.”

Opponents argue that making access to health care a protected civil right would open the floodgates to lawsuits against hospitals, insurance companies, and even individual providers. Health care decisions are often complex and based on medical necessity, but this law could make disparities a legal liability even when not caused by intentional discrimination.  The legislation would impose costly mandates on states and health care providers without offering adequate federal funding. Mandating equal access without addressing capacity, workforce shortages, and infrastructure gaps could place an unsustainable financial burden on already strained systems.

Health care delivery is largely regulated at the state level. Critics say this law could represent an overreach of federal authority, undermining states’ rights to manage their health systems and introducing a one-size-fits-all approach that may not suit local populations.  In addition, the broad language of making "equal access" a civil right could be difficult to interpret and enforce. Critics contend that it’s unclear what standards of "equality" would apply—whether in terms of outcomes, availability of services, insurance coverage, or quality of care—leading to inconsistent application and confusion.

Should Congress pass S.2347, the Equal Health Care for All Act?