Commentary
Biden Is Forcing Hospitals To Go Woke
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Hospitals may soon have to prove their commitment to woke ideology. This deeply concerning reality is buried in a 639-page proposed regulation from the Biden administration that deserves more attention than it’s getting.
The upcoming mandate directs hospitals to make five “attestations” that fully align with woke demands. If hospitals don’t do what the federal government wants, it appears that their federal reimbursements may be cut.
The federal government is demanding that hospitals:
- Develop a “strategic plan for advancing health equity” – including laying out specific actions that hospitals will take when providing care to people of different racial and demographic groups.
- Collect “demographic and social determinant of health data” – which includes everything from patients’ race or ethnicity to their income and employment status.
- Identify “gaps” in care based on patients’ race or identity.
- Engage in “local, regional, or national” activities to advance “health equity.”
- Set “an organizational culture of equity,” with hospital leaders demonstrating “routine and thorough attention to equity.”
Every patient should be worried. By demanding that hospitals advance “health equity,” the Biden administration is laying the groundwork for different standards of care or access to care for people of different races. And by gaining access to so much data on patient demographics, the federal government is setting the stage for further policies that punish hospitals for not toeing the woke line.
The Biden administration’s proposed regulation has nothing to do with healthcare and everything to do with divisive ideology. Hospitals should provide the best care for patients, not promise to uphold the party line.
