Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
Medicare pays for a yearly wellness visit and many preventive screenings at no charge
Free is the word that gets people in the door and, sometimes, the word that leaves them holding a bill they did not expect. Medicare’s...
A Medicare Advantage member can demand a fast appeal, and many denials get overturned
A Medicare Advantage plan that denies a test, a treatment or a hospital stay is not the last word, and the gap between what plans...
Some Medicare Advantage plans hand back part of your Part B premium each month
Every month, the standard Part B premium comes out of a retiree’s Social Security payment before the deposit ever arrives, a deduction that never appears...
Medicare Part A hospital coverage is premium-free once you’ve worked 40 quarters
Most people reach Medicare age expecting to pay for their coverage, and for the doctor-visit and drug portions they do. Hospital insurance is the exception....
Medicare covers shingles, flu and other vaccines at no cost under the drug benefit
The shingles shot used to come with a price tag that stopped people at the counter. The two-dose vaccine that guards against a painful, sometimes...
Hospital “observation status” can leave a Medicare patient with a surprise bill
Two patients can lie in identical beds, on the same hall, receiving much the same care, and walk out owing very different amounts. The difference...
Medicare covers a skilled-nursing stay up to 100 days after a qualifying hospital admission
The moment a hospital says a patient is ready to leave but not ready to go home, a family collides with one of Medicare’s most...
Miss your one-time Medigap window and an insurer can charge more or turn you down
The most valuable window in Medicare opens once and closes on a fixed schedule, and many people do not notice it until it is over....
A life-changing event lets you appeal Medicare’s high-income premium surcharge
Medicare’s premiums are not the same for everyone. Higher-income enrollees pay a surcharge on top of the standard Part B and Part D premiums, a...
Medicare caps the cost of insulin at $35 a month for enrollees
Before the cap, the pharmacy counter was where many diabetics did the math out loud. A single vial or pen of insulin could run well...
Extra Help can wipe out most of a lower-income enrollee’s Medicare drug costs
Prescription costs are the expense retirees feel most sharply, because they recur every month and climb with the number of conditions a person manages. For...
Survivor benefits let a widow or widower step up to the higher of two checks, not both
A married couple drawing two Social Security checks is quietly exposed to a loss that has nothing to do with markets or inflation. When one...
Up to 85% of Social Security can be taxed, and a new senior deduction can trim that bill
Retirees who assume Social Security arrives untaxed often learn otherwise the first time they file. Federal law counts a portion of benefits as taxable income...
One more high-earning year can replace an old zero and permanently lift your Social Security check
A common assumption is that once Social Security starts, the monthly amount is frozen except for annual cost-of-living adjustments. It is not. The benefit is...
A severely disabled adult child can collect on a parent’s Social Security record for life
Families raising a child with a severe, lifelong disability often assume that because the child never built a work history, Social Security has nothing to...
You can withdraw a Social Security claim once within 12 months and reset for a bigger check
Claiming Social Security is one of the few retirement decisions that comes with a genuine undo button — but only briefly, and only at full...
A widowed spouse can start a reduced Social Security survivor benefit as early as age 60
Almost every Social Security benefit shares the same earliest starting line of age 62. The survivor benefit is the exception. A widow or widower can...
A repealed pair of rules is raising Social Security checks for about 3 million public retirees
Two provisions that trimmed Social Security for public-sector retirees are gone, and the checks of roughly three million teachers, firefighters, police officers and other government...
A spouse can claim up to half the worker’s Social Security even with little earnings history
Consider a household where one partner spent decades in the paid workforce and the other raised children, cared for aging parents, or worked jobs that...
Delaying Social Security adds about 8% a year to your check up to age 70
Few guaranteed returns in retirement match what Social Security quietly offers a worker who is willing to wait. For each year a beneficiary postpones claiming...