Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
Many Medicare Advantage plans give a monthly allowance for groceries or over-the-counter items
A benefit that puts money on a card for groceries or drugstore purchases sounds too good to be true, yet many Medicare Advantage plans offer...
Some doctors can add a 15% surcharge to Medicare’s rate, and a few states ban it
A Medicare beneficiary who assumes the program’s approved rate is the final price can be caught off guard by a bill that runs higher. Doctors...
Medicare covers hospice care in full, including drugs and support for the whole family
Among the benefits Medicare offers, few are as complete as its coverage of hospice care, and few are as widely misunderstood by the families who...
A special Medicare plan for people who also have Medicaid can cut costs to nearly zero
Older Americans who hold both Medicare and Medicaid often pay almost nothing for their medical care, yet many never enroll in the plan built for...
Social Security is shielded from most creditors, but the government can still take part for taxes or support
A Social Security check enjoys one of the strongest legal shields in American finance, but the shield has deliberate holes. A federal law known as...
A younger spouse caring for the worker’s child can collect Social Security with no age penalty
Social Security’s spousal benefit normally punishes anyone who claims it early: file before full retirement age and the check is permanently reduced. There is one...
Social Security added 14 severe conditions that can win a disability approval in days, not months
On August 11, 2026, the Social Security Administration added 14 conditions to its Compassionate Allowances list, raising the total to 314. The change is not...
Grandchildren raised by a grandparent can sometimes draw benefits on that grandparent’s Social Security
Millions of American children are being raised by grandparents, and Social Security has a rarely used provision that can turn that arrangement into a monthly...
You can claim on an ex-spouse’s Social Security two years after divorce, even before they file
A marriage that ended years ago can still put money in a retiree’s monthly Social Security check. Under the agency’s divorced-spouse rules, a person whose...
Years of military service can add hidden credits that raise a veteran’s Social Security check
A veteran’s Social Security benefit can be larger than the pay records alone would suggest, because the government quietly adds extra earnings for years of...
A major Minnesota health system is leaving UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage network on January 1
About 11,000 Minnesotans stand to lose in-network access to their doctors when Fairview Health Services stops scheduling patients enrolled in UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans on...
A pooled income trust can help someone over the income limit still get Medicaid care
Medicaid’s long-term-care rules can produce a cruel result: an older person with a modest pension or Social Security check earns a few dollars too much...
Medicaid covers assisted-living costs in many states through special waivers
Assisted living sits in an awkward middle ground for older Americans: it costs less than a nursing home but far more than most Social Security...
Medicaid home- and community-based waivers can pay for care at home instead of a facility
Most older Americans who need long-term help with daily tasks would rather receive it at home than move into a nursing facility, and Medicaid has...
Being a QMB shields a Medicare enrollee from being balance-billed by providers
A bill arrives for a doctor’s visit or hospital stay that should have cost the patient nothing, and for one group of Medicare enrollees, sending...
A “medically needy” spend-down can qualify you for Medicaid after high medical bills
An applicant whose income sits just above the Medicaid limit often hears what sounds like a final rejection. In many states it is not. A...
Medicaid, not Medicare, pays for long-term nursing-home care once you qualify
Families managing a parent’s decline often discover the hard way that the program they counted on does not cover the bill in front of them....
Spousal rules let a healthy spouse keep income and assets when the other needs nursing care
When one spouse enters a nursing home and turns to Medicaid to cover the bill, the partner who remains at home once faced a grim...
NewYork-Presbyterian could go out of UnitedHealthcare’s network September 1 without a deal
One of the country’s best-known hospital systems is days from dropping out of a major Medicare Advantage network, and the outcome was still unsettled as...
Trump’s new drug-pricing model starts in January for costly Medicare Part B medicines
Separate from the advertised cash-price cuts that grabbed headlines this month, Medicare is preparing to change how it pays for some of the most expensive...