Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
Humana is dropping Medicare Advantage plans that cover about 600,000 seniors for 2027
Humana told investors on July 29 that it will pull out of a set of Medicare Advantage markets for the 2027 plan year, a retreat...
Social Security can now take 50% of a check to claw back an overpayment, but a waiver or a $10-a-month plan can stop it.
The Social Security Administration can now withhold as much as 50% of a monthly retirement, survivor, or disability payment to recover an overpayment it says...
Medicare Advantage’s 2027 pay raise was set at 2.48%, and insurers are expected to trim extra perks in response.
Medicare Advantage insurers will collect roughly $13 billion more from the federal government in 2027 than in 2026, the product of a 2.48% payment increase...
California reinstated its Medi-Cal asset limit in 2026, capping a single nursing-home applicant at $130,000.
For two years, California allowed residents to qualify for many Medi-Cal programs without any accounting of how much they had saved. That window closed on...
Medicare’s yearly wellness visit is free, but it is not a full physical.
Once a year, Medicare will pay the full cost of a wellness visit, with no deductible and nothing owed at the desk. The catch is...
Original Medicare covers no routine dental, vision or hearing.
Millions of people reach 65 assuming Medicare will handle their teeth, eyes, and ears the way an employer plan once did. It does not. Original...
About 2 million seniors skip $11.4 billion in Medicare Extra Help savings.
Roughly $11.4 billion in prescription-drug savings goes unclaimed every year because about 2 million people who qualify for Medicare’s Extra Help program never sign up...
Medicare’s fall open enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, the once-a-year window to change or drop a plan.
For most people on Medicare, the coverage decisions that stick for a full year get made inside a single seven-week stretch each fall. That stretch,...
Two nights “under observation” can cost thousands and block nursing-home coverage.
A hospital patient can spend two or three nights in a bed, receive tests, drugs and monitoring, and still never be formally admitted. The reason...
SSI recipients get their August payment early, on July 31.
August 1, 2026 falls on a Saturday, and that single calendar fact reshapes the month for millions of low-income beneficiaries. Because the Social Security Administration...
SSI’s $2,000 savings cap has not moved since 1989.
The Supplemental Security Income program still cuts off eligibility the moment a recipient’s countable assets cross $2,000 for an individual or $3,000 for a couple,...
Working one more year can replace a zero in Social Security’s 35-year formula.
Social Security bases a worker’s benefit on 35 years of earnings, and anyone who worked fewer than 35 years has zeros folded into that average....
Delaying Social Security past full retirement age adds about 8% a year until 70.
Waiting to claim Social Security is one of the few retirement decisions that comes with a guaranteed, government-set raise. For each year a worker holds...
Social Security still taxes benefits once combined income tops $25,000 single or $32,000 per couple, thresholds frozen since 1984.
Retirement income that once escaped federal tax now routinely lands part of a Social Security check on a 1040. The trigger is a figure the...
Twenty-five health systems have now dropped Medicare Advantage for 2026, and about 2.9 million seniors may be forced to switch.
The count of hospital networks backing out of Medicare Advantage keeps climbing. A growing roster of large systems has now cut ties with or scaled...
Who pays more for Medicare drug coverage in 2027? Up to 45% of enrollees, as a federal premium subsidy ends.
Roughly 45% of seniors enrolled in standalone Medicare drug plans could watch their monthly premium climb by more than $10 in 2027, the direct result...
Medicare’s negotiated prices for 15 more drugs, including Ozempic, start January 1, 2027
Medicare has fixed a new government price for a second group of major prescription drugs, but the household consequence remains one plan year away. The...
Delaying Medicare Part B can add 10% to premiums for every full year late
Medicare’s Part B late-enrollment charge grows in full 12-month blocks, turning a coverage timing mistake into a premium increase that can last for the rest...
Medicare Part D caps 2026 out-of-pocket drug spending at $2,100
A person using expensive prescriptions can reach Part D’s catastrophic phase after $2,100 in qualifying out-of-pocket spending during 2026, ending copayments and coinsurance for covered...
Medicare Part B’s 2026 deductible is $283 before most covered care starts paying
Original Medicare places a $283 threshold between a beneficiary and most Part B payments in 2026, but the threshold is only the first layer of...