Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
Naming a representative payee lets a trusted person manage Social Security checks for someone who no longer can
When an aging parent’s memory starts to fail, or an adult child’s disability makes it impossible to track a monthly budget, the Social Security Administration...
A high-deductible Medigap plan can slash the monthly premium for a healthy retiree
A retiree shopping for Medigap Plan G in 2026 faces a fork most comparison charts gloss over. The standard version pays nearly every Medicare-covered cost...
Medicare covers anti-rejection drugs for life after a kidney transplant
A kidney transplant does not end a patient’s need for immunosuppressive drugs — it starts a lifelong prescription that, for one group of Medicare enrollees,...
In the year you retire, a monthly earnings test lets you collect a full Social Security check even after a high-earning start
A worker who earns $37,000 in the first half of 2026 and stops working might assume Social Security will withhold every remaining check, since the...
Social Security’s special minimum benefit lifts checks for long, low-wage careers
For a shrinking group of retirees who spent decades in low-paying jobs, Social Security has built in a backstop most beneficiaries never hear about: the...
Higher-income retirees pay an extra Medicare drug-plan surcharge set by their tax return from two years earlier
Fewer than one in ten Medicare beneficiaries pays more for prescription drug coverage than the sticker price listed by their plan, but for that minority...
A special Medicare plan for people on both Medicare and Medicaid can wipe out most out-of-pocket costs
Federal law makes it illegal for a doctor’s office, hospital or pharmacy to bill certain Medicare patients for anything at all, yet regulators keep issuing...
Medicare’s telehealth coverage is not ending September 30 — the rules are funded through 2027
A September 30 deadline has been circulating among Medicare beneficiaries as the day telehealth coverage disappears, but that date has nothing to do with virtual...
A bill would let disabled workers collect Social Security during the five-month wait that now leaves them with no check
A bipartisan bill introduced in both chambers of Congress this year would let Social Security Disability Insurance recipients start collecting benefits immediately after approval, instead...
Medicare will post the full 2027 plan prices in mid-to-late September, the first real chance to compare next year’s costs before open enrollment
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will publish the complete slate of 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D plan prices in mid-to-late September, the...
The letter that spells out your 2027 Medicare changes lands by September 30, and ignoring it can lock you into a costlier plan
One envelope lands in every Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollee’s mailbox no later than September 30, and what it says determines whether 2027 coverage...
A Medicare drug plan’s formulary can change each January, dropping a covered medication
Every Medicare Part D plan maintains its own formulary — the specific list of drugs it covers — and that list is not fixed for...
A dependent parent can qualify for a Social Security benefit on a worker’s record
Social Security’s survivor benefits are widely understood to cover a worker’s spouse and minor children, but a third, far less publicized category exists: a dependent...
Medicare’s General Enrollment Period runs January through March for those who missed sign-up
Every January 1 through March 31, Medicare opens a narrow, once-a-year door for people who missed their chance to sign up for Part A or...
Medicare Part A is premium-free with 40 work credits; those short of that pay a monthly premium
Roughly ten years of qualifying work stands between a Medicare Part A premium of zero and a monthly bill that can run several hundred dollars...
A disabled adult child can collect on a parent’s Social Security record for life
Most Social Security dependent benefits for children have a hard stop: they end at 18, or 19 for a full-time high school student. One category...
A retiree’s minor child can draw a monthly Social Security benefit on the parent’s record
When a worker starts collecting Social Security retirement benefits, the payment isn’t necessarily limited to that one person. Under the program’s Family benefits rules, an...
A retiree past full retirement age can claim up to six months of Social Security in one back payment
A worker who waits past full retirement age to file for Social Security retirement benefits doesn’t have to choose between filing today or losing the...
Original Medicare has no cap on out-of-pocket costs, which is why many buy a Medigap policy
Original Medicare covers a large share of hospital and medical costs, but it was never built with a ceiling on what a beneficiary pays out...
Medicare covers a free yearly wellness visit, separate from the one-time Welcome to Medicare exam
Medicare covers two different preventive checkups that share almost the same paperwork and confuse enough beneficiaries that Medicare’s own program materials go out of their...