The Scott bill passed the Education and Labor Committee on Tuesday of this week. It has a different approach for dealing with surprise bills that limits the arbitration process and sets forth a benchmark payment rate. Scott's bill would force doctors to accept a benchmark rate for bills under 0 and go through arbitration in disputes over bills higher than 0. .UnitedHealth, the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, announced in mid-November that they would be dropping thousands of doctors from their networks in at least ten states. By the end of 2014, the company expects its network of doctors to be 85 percent to 90 percent of its pre-Obamacare size. .The good news is that reducing drug costs appears to have bipartisan support. Two critical congressional committees – the Senate Finance Committee and the House Oversight and Reform Committee – have launched investigations into the pricing practices of the pharmaceutical industry. .Now, another warning has been issued that some sanitizers made in both the U.S. and China contain benzene, a chemical known to cause blood cancers such as leukemias. .Mary Katherine was 90 when a stroke left her paralyzed on one side of her body and unable to speak. It was 1996 and at the time Medicare had a cap on physical and speech therapy services, which only allowed for a limited number of therapy sessions to help Mary Katherine regain the ability to walk, feed herself, and speak. The paltry coverage of therapy sessions from Medicare did not provide Mary Katherine with enough time or therapy to make much of an improvement in her physical health. Mary Katherine, who received a Social Security benefit of less than 0, couldn't afford more therapy and never recovered her speech. She remained paralyzed for the rest of her life, which she spent as a Medicaid patient in a nursing home. .High Cost of Illegal Work for Social Security Trust Fund .We gave you the bad news about eating fried foods, which really is nothing very new. But there was some hopeful news last week that we want to pass along. .Of the 20 CEOs, annual income not taxed for Social Security totaled 1,545,322 and averaged ,077,266 per CEO. .The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that spending for Social Security, Medicare, other major healthcare programs, defense, and interest payments alone would require every dollar of revenue in about eight years, leaving nothing left over for the rest of the federal budget. The CBO further says that federal debt cannot grow faster than the nation's output indefinitely without causing long-term damage to the government's finances and broader economy.