Top 10 Medicare Bills Introduced in 2022

Here's a look at the top-performing Medicare bills introduced since Jan. 1. We searched Congress.gov for new Medicare bills, then ranked the bills based on co-sponsorship bipartisanship and numbers. Some of these bills could pass on their own. Others could surface as provisions in much larger bills, such as a Ukraine aid bill or a COVID-19 pandemic response funding bill.

What It Means

These measures seem to have the legislative mojo to go places. Each sponsor has managed to overcome the current hostility between Republicans and Democrats and persuade at least one member of the opposite party to sign on as a co-sponsor. Half of the bills here have bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate. For insurance agents and retirement planners, passage of some of these measures could create a reason to reach out to clients and prospects.

Methods

We looked for bills that included the word "Medicare" in the title or Congress.gov bill record metadata fields. We looked first at whether the lead sponsors have rounded up support from both Democrats and Republicans in at least one chamber, and then whether a companion bill in the other chamber also has bipartisan list of co-sponsors. If a bill and its companion have bipartisan support in both chambers, we have put it in the top tier and ranked it based on the total number of co-sponsors in the chamber where it has the longest list of supporters. If a bill has bipartisan support in one chamber, but no companion bill, or no companion bill with bipartisan support, we put it in a second tier of bills and ranked it, within that second tier, based on the number of co-sponsors in that one chamber. The co-sponsor counts given here do not include the sponsors. A bill that could have a big effect on the Medicare program may not show up here if the word "Medicare" does not show up in its Congress.gov entry metadata.

A Caveat

In the real world, many factors, including the seniority and popularity of the sponsor, may affect whether a measure actually becomes law, whether on its own or as part of a bigger legislative package. (Image: Bram Janssens/Thinkstock)