Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Madam 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, when comparing those who never smoked. And while rates of lung cancer have dropped, women fall behind while rates of cancer drop faster for men.

The Equal Health Care for All Act seeks to address structural inequities by establishing a legal definition of ``inequitable health care'' 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 colead, Representative Adam Schiff, for his leadership in California and for leading on this issue in the House.

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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