Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
Repeal of a decades-old penalty restored bigger Social Security checks for millions of retired teachers, police and firefighters
For more than four decades, two provisions buried in Social Security law quietly shrank the retirement checks of people who spent their careers teaching, policing...
Medicare’s next drug deal cuts prices on 15 more medicines and, for the first time, reaches doctor-administered drugs
Medicare’s second round of drug-price negotiations will set lower prices on 15 additional medications beginning January 1, 2027, and for the first time the program...
Ignore the letter dropping your Medicare Advantage plan for 2027 and you fall back to Original Medicare with no drug coverage
Medicare Advantage members whose plans will not return in 2027 begin receiving non-renewal notices this September, and the most expensive mistake is treating that letter...
When one spouse enters a nursing home on Medicaid, the at-home spouse can keep the house and a car
A stay in a nursing home can cost more than $9,000 a month, and the fear that follows almost every family is the same one:...
Medicare’s old Part D “donut hole” coverage gap is gone, so drug costs no longer spike partway through the year
For nearly two decades, Medicare drug coverage carried a notorious trap: the “donut hole,” a mid-year coverage gap that left many older Americans suddenly paying...
Medicare’s free yearly wellness visit is not the full physical many retirees expect
The words “yearly wellness visit” lead many retirees to book what they think is a free head-to-toe physical, then leave puzzled that no one drew...
Medicare Advantage plans are set to trim dental, vision and gym perks for 2027 after insurers called their raise too thin
The extra perks that sold millions of retirees on Medicare Advantage, the dental coverage, vision exams, gym memberships, and grocery or over-the-counter allowances, are heading...
Two nights in the hospital under observation can cost thousands and block nursing-home coverage
A patient can lie in a hospital bed for two, three, even four nights and still never be admitted in the eyes of Medicare. That...
Original Medicare pays nothing toward long-term custodial care averaging over $9,000 a month
Millions of older Americans assume Medicare will catch them if they ever need help bathing, dressing, or eating on their own. It will not. Original...
Social Security disability checks convert to retirement checks at full retirement age, with no drop in the amount
Reaching full retirement age changes almost nothing for a Social Security disability recipient — and that is the point. Disability benefits automatically convert to retirement...
A surviving divorced spouse can still collect on an ex who has died, as long as the marriage lasted at least 10 years
Divorce ends a marriage, but under Social Security’s rules it does not always end a claim to a former spouse’s earnings record. When an ex-spouse...
Suspend Social Security at full retirement age and each month adds a delayed credit worth about 8% a year until 70
The single largest raise many retirees will ever get from Social Security is one almost nobody claims: waiting. For anyone born in 1943 or later,...
A private nursing-home room now tops $10,000 a month, and Medicaid steps in only after savings fall below $2,000
The most expensive line item most families never budget for is long-term care, and its price keeps climbing. The national median cost of a private...
Insurers are dropping Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, and nearly 3 million older Americans may be forced to switch
A second straight year of Medicare Advantage retreat is taking shape, and this time the numbers are large enough to reshape open enrollment. Humana has...
Social Security will no longer change your direct deposit by phone, a fraud block you now clear online or in person
The phone call that once fixed a Social Security direct deposit no longer works. Under an anti-fraud tightening the Social Security Administration put in place...
A spouse who never worked can still collect up to half of a partner’s Social Security at full retirement age
A lifetime spent raising children, running a household, or caring for family instead of drawing a paycheck does not leave a person shut out of...
Medicare’s Extra Help program can wipe out drug-plan premiums and deductibles for lower-income seniors
A federal subsidy called Extra Help can erase the recurring costs of a Medicare drug plan, the monthly premium and the annual deductible, and then...
Original Medicare covers up to 100 days in a skilled nursing facility, then the full cost falls on you
Families often assume Medicare will cover a nursing home stay for as long as it is needed. It will not. Original Medicare pays for skilled...
The 2027 Social Security raise is tracking near 3.6%, the biggest cost-of-living bump in four years
Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 is currently tracking near 3.6%, according to the latest estimate from The Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group that...
Social Security averages your highest 35 years, so one more working year can replace a zero and lift your check
Social Security does not reward a long career and a short one the same way, and the reason sits in a single mechanic: the benefit...