Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
Suspend your Social Security at full retirement age and each month you wait adds about 8% a year in credits until 70
One of the few guaranteed, risk-free raises left in retirement comes from doing nothing with a Social Security benefit for a while longer. For anyone...
The Social Security Fairness Act restored bigger checks for about 3.2 million retired teachers, firefighters and public workers, with back pay to 2024
For more than four decades, a pair of formulas buried in Social Security law quietly shrank or erased the benefits of people who spent their...
UnitedHealth is cutting Medicare Advantage PPO coverage for about 600,000 members as insurers pull 2027 plans
UnitedHealthcare, the country’s largest Medicare Advantage insurer, will drop plans covering roughly 600,000 members for the 2027 plan year, a retreat concentrated in the preferred-provider...
Social Security can now withhold up to half of a monthly check to recover an overpayment, but a form filed within 30 days freezes it
Social Security has revived one of its most painful collection tools, and many beneficiaries will not grasp what changed until a check arrives cut in...
Who can get their entire $202.90 Medicare Part B premium paid? Limited-income seniors who join a Medicare Savings Program
The standard Medicare Part B premium rises to $202.90 a month in 2026, a charge pulled straight from Social Security before the deposit ever lands....
Medicare’s out-of-pocket costs for weight-loss drugs still won’t count toward the $2,400 cap under the $50 pilot
Medicare’s new $50-a-month deal on weight-loss drugs comes with a catch buried in the fine print of how Part D counts spending. The flat copay...
Social Security averages your highest 35 years, so one more working year can replace a zero and lift your check
A Social Security retirement benefit is not built from a worker’s final salary or a lucky peak year. It is an average of the 35...
A federal audit found 5,367 widows lost $113.8 million by claiming survivor benefits early
A federal watchdog has concluded that thousands of widows and widowers gave up a fortune in Social Security by claiming too early. The Social Security...
Medicare covers a yearly wellness visit at no cost, but mistaking it for a full physical can bring a surprise bill
Medicare covers a yearly wellness visit at no charge, one of the most useful free benefits in Part B, yet the word “wellness” hides a...
Medicare’s Part D deductible climbs to $700 in 2027, the amount you pay before drug coverage begins
Medicare’s standard Part D drug deductible is set to rise to $700 in 2027, up from $615 in 2026, meaning enrollees on the standard benefit...
Some Medicare Advantage plans refund part of your $202.90 Part B premium, putting cash back in your check
The standard Medicare Part B premium reached $202.90 a month in 2026, and for most enrollees that amount is subtracted from the Social Security payment...
Medicare’s 2027 plan-change notices land by September 30, and ignoring yours can lock you into a costlier plan
Sometime before September 30, a plain envelope from a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan reaches millions of mailboxes and gets set aside unopened. Inside...
Full retirement age has reached 67, and claiming at 62 now locks in a check about 30% smaller for life
Full retirement age has finished its long climb to 67. For everyone born in 1960 or later, the age at which Social Security pays a...
Divorced spouses married at least 10 years can claim up to half an ex’s Social Security, with no hit to the ex
A marriage that ended decades ago can still pay a monthly Social Security check. A divorced person who was married at least 10 years can...
A child can collect Social Security on a retired, disabled, or deceased parent’s record
Social Security lives in most people’s minds as a retirement check, but a substantial share of its payments go to children. When a parent begins...
About 2 million seniors skip $11.4 billion in Medicare Extra Help drug savings yearly
An estimated two million older Americans who qualify for Medicare’s Extra Help program never enroll in it, and the savings they leave unclaimed add up...
A retiree hit with a high Medicare premium after a one-time income spike can appeal it with Form SSA-44
A retiree whose Medicare premium jumps after a single unusual year of income, a home sale, a large Roth conversion, or the year work finally...
A surviving spouse who waits until survivor full retirement age can collect 100% of a late partner’s check
A surviving spouse who waits until reaching survivor full retirement age can collect the deceased partner’s Social Security benefit in full, the entire amount the...
Medicare’s out-of-pocket drug cap drops to $2,400 in 2027, then covered prescriptions cost nothing
Medicare’s cap on out-of-pocket prescription costs, a limit that did not exist a few years ago, brings the ceiling on covered drugs down to $2,400...
As Medicare Advantage insurers drop more 2027 plans, being cut guarantees you the right to buy any Medigap policy
Medicare Advantage insurers are pruning their 2027 lineups, and for the members caught in the cuts, the bad news comes wrapped around a rare piece...