Hospital charity-care laws dataset
Download: charity_care_states.json · Coverage: 52 jurisdictions · Verified: June 10, 2026 · Refresh: re-verification cadence enforced by automated data-health budget; event-driven updates for law changes
Which states legally require hospitals to provide free or discounted care, at what income thresholds, under which statute — 39 rows verified directly against statute text, the rest against authoritative state-law compilations (sources cited per row).
What’s in each row
Per state: whether a state law exists beyond federal 501(r), the law’s name and citation, free-care and discounted-care income thresholds as % of the federal poverty level, what the law covers, a plain-language summary in English and Spanish, source links, and a confidence flag.
Method
Researched June 2026 from state legislature texts, state health-department pages, the Hilltop Institute’s Community Benefit State Law Profiles, and Dollar For’s state sheets — with statute text as the tiebreaker wherever sources disagreed. Each row stores its own sources.
Where this data is used
- Charity-care income thresholds analysis — the 14 free-care income lines charted, 100% to 300% FPL
- Free hospital care by state — 104 live pages render from this file
Suggested citation: MigrantUSA, “Hospital charity-care laws dataset,” migrantusa.com/datasets/hospital-charity-care-laws/, retrieved [date].