Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
SSI lost 99,553 recipients in a year, and the average payment rose to $738.73
Supplemental Security Income covered 99,553 fewer people in August 2026 than it did a year earlier, according to the Social Security Administration’s own monthly tables,...
Medicare open enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, with changes starting January 1
October 15 opens a seven-week window in which any Medicare beneficiary can rework coverage from top to bottom, and medicare.gov’s own enrollment rules set the...
Under Trump’s 2025 law, new Medicare enrollees must be citizens, green card holders, Cuban-Haitian entrants or COFA migrants
A provision buried in the tax-and-spending law President Trump signed on July 4, 2025 now sets a hard eligibility floor for anyone newly signing up...
Average Social Security retirement check hits $2,087.52, up $79 in a year
$2,087.52 is the new average monthly benefit for a retired worker on Social Security, according to the Social Security Administration’s own Monthly Statistical Snapshot for...
Social Security’s January 2027 payment for people paid on the 3rd arrives December 31
December 31, 2026, will double as a Social Security payday for one specific slice of beneficiaries: those still paid on the 3rd of the month...
QMB helps pay Part B premiums, deductibles and copays for Medicare couples with income up to $1,824 a month in 2026
Qualified Medicare Beneficiary, the broadest of the three Medicare Savings Programs, pays a married couple’s Part B premiums, deductibles, coinsurance and copayments when 2026 household...
Americans born in 1960 are the first who must wait until 67 for full Social Security, and they reach it in 2027
Sixty-seven, not 66 and 10 months, is the number stamped on every retirement estimate mailed to someone born in 1960, the first birth year Social...
Medicare couples can hold up to $14,910 in resources under the 2026 federal limits for Part B premium help
Three Medicare Savings Programs use the same 2026 resource ceiling to decide whether a married couple’s income even gets tested for Part B premium help:...
A married couple on Medicare with income up to $2,455 a month can qualify for help paying Part B premiums in 2026
A married couple on Medicare can earn as much as $2,455 a month in 2026 and still qualify for the Qualifying Individual program, the highest...
Medicare Advantage plans may be able to handle prior authorization requests electronically starting January 1, 2027
A federal rule finalized nearly three years ago sets January 1, 2027 as the deadline for Medicare Advantage plans to build the electronic systems capable...
An audit found 26% of sampled SSI recipients owned vehicles they never reported
A Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General audit released September 15 found that 54 of 208 sampled Supplemental Security Income recipients, or 26...
Eight states still tax Social Security benefits in 2026
Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont are still taxing at least some residents’ Social Security benefits in 2026, even as...
SSA staff failed to follow policy for 43% of sampled SSI recipients owed back pay
Within a sample of 160 pending Supplemental Security Income underpayments, the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General found that employees did not follow...
SSI back pay owed to recipients who later died sat unpaid for an average of 22 years, an audit found
An audit of Supplemental Security Income records, released in August by the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General, found that underpayments owed to...
Medicare members fall outside Medicaid’s new work rule, even before they turn 65
Medicaid’s new 80-hour-a-month community-engagement requirement is scheduled to reach most states by January 1, 2027, but the rule never touches everyone under 65. CMS’s interim...
Medicare Advantage members get one more plan switch between January 1 and March 31 after open enrollment ends December 7
December 7 is not the last word on a Medicare Advantage plan choice for 2027. Medicare.gov’s enrollment rules give members already in a Medicare Advantage...
A Medicare Advantage member whose plan ends must apply within 63 days after coverage stops to keep a guaranteed Medigap right
Sixty-three days is the outside limit. That is how long a Medicare Advantage member has after their plan’s coverage ends to apply for a Medigap...
The final inflation reading behind Social Security’s 2027 raise arrives October 14, and August’s gauge was up 3.5%
October 14 is the date the Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish the September Consumer Price Index, the release that completes the three-month average behind...
Social Security will charge $23 for a copy of an original Social Security card application starting October 1
Social Security will charge $23 for a copy of an original Form SS-5, the application filed to obtain a Social Security card, on requests it...
Stand-alone Medicare drug plan members lose a subsidy that cut premiums by $16 a month this year
Stand-alone Medicare Part D drug plan members are set to lose a temporary federal subsidy that cut their average monthly premium by $16 in 2026,...