Supreme Court wrestles with whether Medicaid "any qualified provider" clause creates private right

At oral argument in the Supreme Court case captioned Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (No. 23‑1275), justices pressed counsel on whether the Medicaid "any qualified provider" provision creates a private right that beneficiaries may enforce in federal court under 42 U.S.C. §1983.

Petitioner’s counsel, Mister Bursch, told the court that the statute lacks the kind of explicit, rights‑creating language this Court has required in prior cases. He argued Congress did not use the word "right" or its functional equivalent and instead placed the provision among many state plan requirements, within a "substantial compliance" framework that leaves enforcement primarily to the secretary. "Congress did none of that here, and the court should not read the any qualified provider provision as though Congress did," Bursch said, stressing Gonzaga and this Court’s subsequent decisions as setting a high bar…