Sponsors (12)
The bill aims to increase provision of charitable medical care by lowering financial and legal barriers for clinicians, but does so at the cost of reduced federal revenue, potential limits on patients' legal remedies and consumer protections, and exclusions/valuation choices that may leave some services and specialties unsupported.
Low-income patients (including Medicaid/CHIP enrollees and children): greater access to charitable medical services because the bill reduces both financial and legal barriers that make clinicians more likely to provide unpaid care (tax deduction for charity care and liability protections).
Physicians and attending medical personnel: reduced civil liability risk for non‑intentional mistakes when providing qualified charity care, which lowers legal risk and encourages more clinicians to offer pro bono services.
Physician taxpayers (including non‑itemizers): ability to deduct the Medicare fee‑schedule value of qualifying unpaid care (and allowing the deduction for non‑itemizers) lowers taxable income and reduces the after‑tax cost of providing charity care.
Taxpayers and the federal budget: the new deduction will reduce federal tax receipts, potentially increasing deficits or crowding out funding for other programs.
Low‑income patients and other charity recipients: reduced legal recourse because immunity for non‑gross negligence limits ability to recover damages, and federal preemption restricts states from imposing stricter liability or consumer protections.
People seeking gender‑affirming care and clinicians who provide it: excluding gender‑affirming surgeries and hormone treatments from deductible qualified charity care may discourage unpaid provision of those services.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Allows physicians to deduct the unreimbursed Medicare-fee-schedule value of charity care for Medicaid/CHIP enrollees and creates a federal civil-liability limit for that care, excluding certain gender‑affirming services.
Introduced November 20, 2025 by Daniel A. Webster · Last progress November 20, 2025
Creates a federal tax deduction and a liability shield to encourage physicians to provide unpaid care to people enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. The tax change lets physicians deduct the unreimbursed Medicare-fee-schedule value of qualifying charity care, and a parallel health‑law change limits civil liability for physicians and attending medical personnel who provide that care, so long as the act was not intentional, knowing, reckless, or grossly negligent. The package excludes certain gender‑affirming surgeries and hormone treatments from qualifying charity care and applies to care furnished after December 31, 2025.