[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 123 (Thursday, July 17, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S4458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. PADILLA (for himself, Mr. Booker, Mr. Schiff, and Mr. 
        Gallego):
  S. 2347. A bill to prohibit discrimination in health care and require 
the provision of equitable health care, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Equal Health Care 
for All Act, which appropriately frames healthcare discrimination as a 
civil rights issue.
  Inequitable access to quality, affordable healthcare is the result of 
centuries of structural and systemic racism, all of which continues to 
result in poorer health outcomes in communities of color.
  Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous individuals are disproportionately 
more likely than their White counterparts to suffer from a range of 
illnesses, from asthma, to heart disease, to prostate cancer.
  Inequitable outcomes are not exclusive to racial trends, however. 
Women are both diagnosed with and die from lung cancer at a higher rate 
than men, even when they don't smoke. And while rates of lung cancer 
have dropped for men, they have risen for women.
  The Equal Health Care for All Act seeks to address structural 
inequities by establishing a legal definition of ``inequitable 
healthcare'' and creating a formal process to enforce the standard.
  The bill would also establish a grant program to assist hospitals and 
other providers in implementing reforms to ensure equitable care and 
would establish a permanent Federal Health Equity Commission to study 
and make recommendations on health equity issues.
  I would like to thank my coleads, Senators Booker and Schiff, and I 
look forward to working with my colleagues to enact the Equal Health 
Care for All Act as quickly as possible.
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