Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2025
Key claim: The Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2025 would prohibit federal and federally funded health programs from using quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) that discount life value by disability, age, or terminal illness for coverage, reimbursement, or incentive decisions, while cutting Prevention and Public Health Fund appropriations.
Abstract
(HR3864 · 119th Congress) Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2025 This bill prohibits all federal health care programs, including the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and federally funded state health care programs (e.g., Medicaid) from using prices that are based on quality-adjusted life years (i.e., measures that discount the value of a life based on disability, age, or terminal illness) to determine relevant thresholds for coverage, reimbursements, or incentive programs. The Government Accountability Office must annually report on how the use of quality-adjusted life years negatively affects individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The bill also reduces funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund for FY2026-FY2031. Latest action (2025-06-10): Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Why this matters
QALY-based value assessments have long been contested by disability advocates who argue they systematically undervalue the lives of people with disabilities, chronic conditions, and terminal illnesses when used to set coverage or reimbursement. A statutory ban across federal health programs would foreclose a widely used cost-effectiveness methodology, while the paired cut to the Prevention and Public Health Fund raises distinct trade-offs about public health capacity that reviewers weigh differently.