10 Medicare Bills That Might Actually Become Law

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee is preparing to consider 44 pieces of legislation that could have an above-average chance of becoming law. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the committee chair, have scheduled a markup on the bills for Tuesday afternoon. The committee plans to stream video of the markup live on the web and post a recording of the video on its website. See the accompanying gallery for a look at 10 of the bills that would have a direct effect on Medicare and seem as if they could affect many of a typical financial professional's clients, or could have a big effect on a few clients with serious, rare, complicated health problems. What it means: Most Medicare bills die in silence on the Congress.gov website, without a committee ever looking at them. The bills on the markup meeting list are the ones that have a real chance of affecting clients. The legislation: The bills on the markup agenda include many related to general health care or general commerce issues, rather than to Medicare. One of the bills, H.R. 2365, would create a National Plan to End Parkinson's Act that would be similar to the legislation that created the federal government's effort to fight Alzheimer's and dementia. Another bill, H.R. 6543, would prohibit hotels from tacking on surprise fees. Some of the bills to be marked up may be popular enough that they could sail through the House and the Senate under "regular order" rules and be signed by President Joe Biden. Others could be rushed through in one of the huge "omnibus" spending or budget bills that congress passes to keep the government from shutting down. (Adobe Stock)