Sponsors (11)
The bill incentivizes clinicians to provide more charity care through liability protections and an above‑the‑line tax deduction, likely improving access for low‑income patients, but it shifts fiscal costs to taxpayers, narrows patients' legal remedies (including for negligent charity care), and may reduce access or protections for excluded services such as gender‑affirming care.
Low-income and uninsured patients are likely to gain greater access to free or reduced‑cost care because liability protections make clinicians more willing to provide qualified charity services.
Providers get a uniform national rule about liability exposure for qualified charity care (federal preemption), reducing legal uncertainty across states for clinicians who volunteer.
Physicians who provide unreimbursed care to Medicaid or CHIP enrollees can claim an above‑the‑line deduction equal to the Medicare‑equivalent value of those services, lowering taxable income even for non‑itemizers.
Patients harmed by charity care will have narrower legal remedies because liability is limited to gross negligence/intentional acts and federal law can preempt broader state protections.
Some patients may actually lose access to particular charity services if providers avoid services excluded from the tax treatment or if administrative complexity discourages participation, reducing net charitable care.
Excluding gender‑affirming care from the tax deduction could discourage clinicians from offering those services free of charge, harming transgender patients' access to care and raising equity concerns.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates an above-the-line deduction for certain uncompensated physician services to Medicaid/CHIP enrollees and limits civil liability for providers who furnish that qualified charity care.
Introduced November 20, 2025 by Daniel A. Webster · Last progress November 20, 2025
Creates a new above-the-line tax deduction for physicians equal to the unreimbursed Medicare-fee-schedule value of certain uncompensated services provided without expectation of payment to Medicaid or CHIP enrollees, and adds a federal civil-liability limitation for physicians and attending medical personnel who furnish that same “qualified charity care.” The tax deduction is available to non-itemizers and applies to qualified charity care furnished after December 31, 2025. The civil-liability limit bars lawsuits under federal or state law for harms caused while furnishing qualified charity care unless the act or omission was intentional, knowing, reckless, or grossly negligent; it also preempts inconsistent state or local laws except where those laws offer greater defendant protection.