Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
A community-spouse allowance lets the healthy spouse keep income and assets when the other needs a nursing home
When one spouse needs nursing-home-level care and applies for Medicaid to pay for it, federal law does not force the other spouse to spend down...
Medicare covers part of outpatient mental-health therapy visits
Depression and anxiety don’t retire when a person turns 65, and Medicare’s coverage for outpatient mental health treatment is broader than many beneficiaries assume, extending...
Medicare’s Part D now covers shingles and other adult vaccines at no cost
For years, the shingles vaccine sat in an awkward gap in Medicare coverage: recommended for nearly everyone over 50, but priced high enough out of...
Medigap plans are standardized by letter, so identical coverage can cost wildly different premiums
Two people can buy a Medicare Supplement Insurance policy carrying the exact same letter, from two different insurance companies, and pay premiums that differ by...
Signing up for Social Security and Medicare are separate steps, and a late Medicare start brings a penalty
Turning 65 does not automatically move a Medicare card into the mail. Social Security administers both programs, and the overlap has convinced many people nearing...
The free Welcome to Medicare visit in your first year costs nothing
New Medicare enrollees are entitled to one appointment that arrives with essentially no fine print: the “Welcome to Medicare” preventive visit, available once within the...
A Medicare Advantage plan must keep paying for treatment already underway after you switch plans
Switching Medicare Advantage plans mid-treatment used to carry a real risk that a new insurer would simply restart the approval process, forcing a patient already...
Medicare covers hospice care almost entirely, sparing a family the cost
Terminal diagnoses arrive with enough to absorb without a family also bracing for a hospital-scale bill. Medicare’s hospice benefit is built to remove that second...
A Medicare Advantage plan can change its network every January, dropping your doctor mid-year
A Medicare Advantage member who picked a plan specifically to keep a longtime doctor in-network can still lose that doctor before the next enrollment season...
A first-year Medicare Advantage member can switch back to Original Medicare within 12 months and keep Medigap
Medicare Advantage’s appeal often rests on a trade a new enrollee cannot fully judge from a brochure: lower premiums and extra benefits in exchange for...
Leaving a job after 65 opens an eight-month window to join Medicare with no penalty
A worker who keeps working past 65 while staying on a company health plan does not have to scramble to sign up for Medicare the...
A Medicare Savings Program’s QMB level bars a doctor from billing you the balance
The most generous of Social Security’s four Medicare Savings Programs, the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary program, does more than help pay Medicare premiums. Once a low-income...
A one-time $255 Social Security death benefit can go to a surviving spouse
When a Social Security-insured worker dies, a surviving spouse may be entitled to a one-time payment of exactly $255 — a flat, statutory figure that...
Remarrying before 60 can cost a survivor their Social Security survivor benefit
Remarriage is one of the few life events that can shut off a Social Security survivor benefit entirely, and the outcome depends almost entirely on...
A divorced spouse can claim on an ex’s record two years after the divorce, before the ex files
An ordinary spouse cannot collect a Social Security spousal benefit until the working spouse has filed for retirement benefits. A divorced spouse faces no such...
A disabled surviving spouse can claim a Social Security survivor benefit as early as 50
Social Security’s ordinary survivor-benefit floor is age 60, but a surviving spouse who has a disability can start ten years earlier, at 50, provided the...
A widow or widower can start a reduced Social Security survivor benefit as early as 60
Social Security does not force a surviving spouse to wait until full retirement age to start collecting. A widow or widower can begin a reduced...
Fifteen more drugs, including Trelegy and Janumet, get Medicare price cuts up to 85% next year
Medicare finalized negotiated 2027 prices for 15 more prescription drugs on November 25, 2025, with individual cuts from the 2024 list price ranging from about...
Ignore the plan-change letter your Medicare insurer mails by September 30 and you can lose January drug coverage
Every year, Medicare Advantage and Part D plans mail an “Annual Notice of Change” each September, and CMS guidance calls for it to reach enrollees...
A bill to stop Social Security garnishment for student debt lands when Congress returns September 14
Senator Bernie Sanders is preparing to introduce the Stop Social Security Garnishment Act of 2026 when the Senate returns from its August recess on September...