Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
North Carolina and Illinois expansion adults renew Medicaid every six months from January 1
Medicaid expansion adults in North Carolina and Illinois will renew their coverage every six months instead of once a year, starting January 1, 2027. Both...
Insurers will offer about 5,532 Medicare Advantage plans in 2027, down from 5,553
Twenty-one. That is how many Medicare Advantage plans disappear from the national lineup next year, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS...
Top-earning Social Security couples who retired this year get a $3,600 combined increase from the 3.6% COLA, a budget watchdog estimates
The highest-earning Social Security couples who retired this year at their normal retirement age will get a $3,600 combined increase from the 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment,...
Martin’s Point Generations Advantage members who see InterMed doctors lose them in network on January 1, 2027, when InterMed stops accepting the plans
About 4,500 patients of InterMed, a Portland practice, are about to find out that their doctor will be out of network, according to InterMed. Martin’s...
SSI recipients who appeal a payment cut in writing within 10 days of receiving the notice keep getting their current payment until Social Security reconsiders the decision
People on Supplemental Security Income who get a notice that their payment will drop can keep the current amount coming during an appeal, but only...
Social Security’s 3.6% COLA adds about $900 a year for the average retiree, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates
The 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment that takes effect in January will add about $900 a year to the average retiree’s benefits, according to an estimate from...
Social Security’s revised heart-disease disability rules take effect October 30 and will apply to claims still pending that day, not only to new applications
Heart-related disability claims that are still undecided on October 30 will be judged under Social Security’s revised rules, not the old ones. The agency’s new...
Wellcare’s Arkansas Medicare Advantage coverage ends December 31, and members whose plan is not renewing can join a new plan through the end of February 2027
A letter is due in Arkansas mailboxes this month for people whose Wellcare Medicare Advantage plan is not coming back. Wellcare says affected coverage ends...
Social Security’s maximum check for a worker retiring at full retirement age will be $4,188 a month in 2027
Social Security’s largest possible monthly check for a worker who retires at full retirement age will be $4,188 in 2027, up from $4,152 this year....
Food stamps for a person living alone top out at $306 a month in the 48 states and D.C. through September 2027, and the one-person net income limit is $1,330
A person living alone on food stamps, formally the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, can now receive no more than $306 a month in...
It takes $1,970 of covered earnings to earn one Social Security credit in 2027, the agency’s actuarial table shows
It will take $1,970 in covered earnings in 2027 to earn one Social Security credit, $80 more than the $1,890 required this year, according to...
Average Medicare Advantage premiums fall to $3.98 in South Carolina, $4.08 in Mississippi and $4.24 in Missouri for 2027, CMS state fact sheets show
The average monthly premium for a Medicare Advantage plan will be $3.98 in South Carolina in 2027, $4.08 in Mississippi and $4.24 in Missouri, the...
September’s CPI-W index of 330.654 was the last reading in the third-quarter average behind Social Security’s 2027 cost-of-living raise
The number that closed the books on Social Security’s 2027 raise is 330.654, the September level of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners...
Wyoming will have 8 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, down from 14, while Montana falls from 32 to 23 and Minnesota from 68 to 53, CMS state fact sheets show
Wyoming will have 8 Medicare Advantage plans to choose from in 2027, down from 14 this year, according to the state fact sheets the Centers...
Beneficiaries who open a my Social Security account by November 18 can read their 2027 COLA notice online in late November, up to three weeks before mailed letters
Social Security plans to post the 2027 cost-of-living notice in online accounts in late November, and people who set up their my Social Security account...
SSI’s federal payment rises to $1,029 a month for an individual and $1,544 for a couple, and the first larger deposit arrives December 31
Social Security has posted the 2027 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) rates: $1,029 a month for an individual and $1,544 for a couple, up from $994...
Social Security’s 3.6% raise for 2027 reaches about 76 million people, with SSI’s increase arriving December 31 and Social Security’s with January benefits
Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 is 3.6 percent, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced October 14, and it reaches about 76 million Americans who...
Prosecutors say a Tucson man kept $104,013 in Social Security payments sent to his late mother’s account
A federal grand jury in Tucson has indicted Ruffin Alford III, 48, on a charge that he kept $104,013 in Social Security benefits deposited into...
A Reno woman faces a December 1 federal trial over at least $15,000 of her late uncle’s Social Security deposits
A Reno woman is scheduled to stand trial in federal court on December 1 on a charge that she took Social Security retirement money meant...
Social Security wants to merge two disability forms, with comments due November 23
Social Security wants to replace two forms that people fill out at the disability hearing stage with one. The revised Form HA-4631, Claimant’s Recent Medical...