D.C. is Bribing Doctors to Discriminate

The federal government wants your physician to discriminate on the basis of race – and it’s willing to bribe them to make it happen. That’s the sad reality of a new Medicare policy in effect since the start of the year.

The details are deeply disturbing. Since January 1st, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services has offered higher Medicare reimbursement rates to doctors who “create and implement an anti-racism plan.” Anti-racism, a core component of Critical Race Theory, holds that people must be treated differently based on their skin color. In the context of health care, that means doctors must provide preferential care to minorities, while deprioritizing care for others.

This is discrimination, plain and simple – and it cuts at the heart of a doctor’s work. Doctors want to provide personalized care to the patient in front of them and anyone else who walks through their door. Yet under the tenets of anti-racism, that’s unacceptable. It says that some patients deserve better access and treatment than others, not because of their individual health needs, but because they’re part of a racial group.

Doctors don’t want that. But D.C. is pressuring them to cave. Higher reimbursement rates are a powerful motivator for medical professionals and providers, who constantly face increased costs and administrative burdens. The federal government is using the reality of this very real problem to foist another, bigger problem on doctors.

This is bribery in service of a bad cause. Doctors and patients will suffer from D.C.’s attempt to force discrimination on health care.