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 nothing for care outside the United States
A retiree who assumes Medicare travels with them across a border is in for an expensive correction. Original Medicare almost never pays for medical care...
Keep working past 65 with job coverage and you get eight months to join Part B without a penalty
Turning 65 does not force a worker off the job and onto Medicare Part B, and for someone still covered by an active employer plan,...
Two lesser-known programs, SLMB and QI, will pay a senior’s Medicare Part B premium
The Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary and Qualifying Individual programs sit almost invisibly inside Medicare, yet either one can erase the entire monthly Part B premium...
Waiting past age 70 to claim Social Security adds nothing to your check
Delaying a Social Security claim is one of the few guaranteed ways to raise a monthly benefit — until age 70, when the reward abruptly...
You can no longer take just a spousal benefit and let your own Social Security grow
For years, a married worker at full retirement age could file a restricted application, collect a spousal benefit worth up to half of a husband’s...
Act within 30 days of a Social Security overpayment notice and the agency can’t start taking half your check
The Social Security Administration can reclaim money it says it paid in error by withholding 50% of a monthly retirement, survivors, or disability check —...
A bigger 2027 federal payment won’t stop insurers from dropping Medicare Advantage, and nearly 3 million seniors could lose their plans
Federal payments to Medicare Advantage plans are set to rise about 2.48% for 2027, an increase the insurance industry values at roughly $13 billion. Yet...
Social Security isn’t automatic — you must apply, and you can start up to four months early
Social Security retirement benefits do not begin on their own. No matter how many years of payroll taxes a worker has paid, the monthly check...
Medicare Advantage members get a second window, January 1 to March 31, to switch plans
Most retirees think the only chance to fix a Medicare plan comes and goes with the fall enrollment season, but a second window opens every...
A one-time $255 Social Security death benefit goes to a surviving spouse or child
The smallest benefit Social Security pays is also one of the most overlooked: a one-time death payment of exactly $255. When a covered worker dies,...
SSI adds a monthly federal check for low-income seniors and disabled adults
Supplemental Security Income is the Social Security check that has nothing to do with a work record. The federal program pays a monthly benefit to...
Medicare caps the cost of insulin at $35 a month
A month’s supply of covered insulin costs Medicare beneficiaries no more than $35, with no deductible to meet first. The cap applies to each covered...
A disabled adult child can collect on a parent’s Social Security record for life
A disability that begins early in life can create a Social Security benefit that lasts for the rest of it. Under the agency’s Disabled Adult...
Social Security pays monthly checks to minor children when a parent retires or becomes disabled
When a parent starts drawing Social Security retirement or disability benefits, the checks may not stop with the parent. A dependent child can qualify for...
A federal audit found $106 million in dead beneficiaries’ Social Security overpayments never recovered, and estates can be billed
A Social Security Administration inspector general audit released on August 12, 2026, concluded the agency could still recover an estimated $106 million in benefits that...
You need 40 credits — about 10 years of work — to draw Social Security retirement
The number that decides whether an American can ever collect Social Security on their own record is not an age — it is 40. That...
Original Medicare covers 80% of a doctor’s bill, leaving you the other 20% without Medigap
The 80/20 split at the heart of Medicare Part B sounds manageable until the bills grow large. After a beneficiary meets the annual deductible, Part...
Original Medicare sets no cap on your out-of-pocket costs; Advantage plans do
One of the largest gaps in Original Medicare is the one that gets the least attention until a serious illness arrives. Parts A and B...
Once you enroll in Medicare, you can no longer add money to a health savings account
Health savings accounts are one of the few retirement tools that hand out three separate tax breaks, yet the door closes the moment Medicare begins....
Medicare’s 2027 plan prices post in late September, before Open Enrollment opens October 15
Medicare beneficiaries get their first concrete look at 2027 coverage in September, weeks before they can act on it. Plan-specific premiums, deductibles, and drug lists...