Description: House Bill 928 (H928) would prohibit healthcare providers who participate in Idaho’s medicaid program from engaging in certain DEI-related activities. 

Rating: +3

NOTE: House Bill 928 is identical to House Bill 828 from earlier in the 2025 legislative session.

Does it increase government spending (for objectionable purposes) or debt? Conversely, does it decrease government spending or debt?

H928 would ensure that medicaid provider payments are not used to promote DEI ideology. This legislation would also prevent participating healthcare providers from implementing mandatory implicit bias training or require statements, pledges, assertions, or affirmations, endorsing DEI principles as a condition of employment. 

(+1)

Does it violate the principle of equal protection under the law? Examples include laws that discriminate or differentiate based on age, gender, or religion or which apply laws, regulations, rules, or penalties differently based on such characteristics. Conversely, does it restore or protect the principle of equal protection under the law?

H928 would prohibit any healthcare provider “who participates in the Idaho medicaid program or receives medicaid reimbursements in whole or in part through a state-contracted managed care network” from engaging in “discriminatory hiring practices” that grants a preference or imposes a disadvantage “in employment or contracting based on race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, except as expressly required by federal law.” In doing so, H928 upholds the principle of equal protection by ensuring that healthcare providers who receive government subsidies are not expending what are effectively public funds on discriminatory hiring practices.

(+1)

Does it promote the breakdown of the traditional family or the deconstruction of societal norms? Examples include promoting or incentivizing degeneracy, violating parental rights, and compromising the innocence of children. Conversely, does it protect or uphold the structure, tenets, and traditional values of Western society?

H928 would prohibit healthcare providers who voluntarily participate in the Idaho medicaid program from spending state funds, including medicaid reimbursements, to establish policies or otherwise engage in any public-facing communication, “including marketing materials, websites, mission or value statements, publicly presented staff trainings, facility signage, or social media” that promotes DEI. The bill defines DEI as concepts consistent with “critical race theory, or anti-racism, (or) any form of race or sex stereotyping or scapegoating.” This includes the concepts that:

1. One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex;
2. The United States is fundamentally racist or sexist;
3.  An individual, by virtue of the individual's race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously;
4. An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of the individual's race or sex;
5. Members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex;
6. An individual's moral character is necessarily determined by the individual's race or sex;
7. An individual, by virtue of the individual's race or sex, bears re20 sponsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex;
8. An individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual's race or sex;
9. Meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by a particular race to oppress another race; or
10. All people should be compelled to believe in and speak in a manner consistent with the concept that an individual can change the individual's sex or gender.

(+1)