Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
Social Security’s retirement fund runs dry in late 2032, and the automatic cut would average about $500 a month for a retiree
The fourth quarter of 2032 is the date stamped on Social Security’s own accounting books: the point at which the retirement program’s trust fund runs...
Four Social Security bills are waiting when Congress returns September 14, and two of them would raise the payroll tax cap to keep checks whole
Two deadlines fall on the same date this year, and only one of them was planned that way. September 14 is when the Senate returns...
A retiree hit with a high Medicare premium after a one-time income spike can appeal it with Form SSA-44
Medicare’s high-income surcharge, formally the income-related monthly adjustment amount, is calculated from a tax return that is two years old — so a single spike...
A Medigap Plan N trades a lower premium for small doctor and ER copays
Among the ten standardized Medigap policies sold to people on Original Medicare, Plan N occupies a middle lane: it covers most of what the richer...
Original Medicare rarely covers foreign-travel emergencies, a gap some Medigap plans fill
An older American who books an overseas trip often assumes the Medicare coverage that works at home travels with them. In almost every case it...
Higher-income retirees face a Medicare surcharge in 2027 that is projected to start near $112,000 of income for a single filer
Retirees with six-figure incomes are being told to pull out their 2025 tax returns now, because a Medicare premium surcharge projected for 2027 is expected...
Medicare’s standard Part B premium is projected to rise to about $210 a month for 2027, with the official figure due this fall
Medicare’s trustees expect the standard monthly premium for Part B to reach about $210 in 2027, a smaller increase than beneficiaries have faced in most...
Medicare pays nothing toward long-term custodial care, which averages over $100,000 a year
The most expensive care most people will ever need is the care Medicare was never designed to pay for. Day-to-day help with bathing, dressing, eating,...
A Medigap Plan G covers the 15% surcharge some doctors add to Medicare’s rate
A little-known line item can appear on a Medicare patient’s bill when a doctor chooses not to accept Medicare’s payment as full payment. Called a...
A six-month Medigap window guarantees coverage with no health questions
The best price a person will ever be offered on a Medicare supplement policy usually arrives in a single six-month stretch, and it does not...
Original Medicare puts no yearly cap on out-of-pocket costs, unlike Medicare Advantage
Original Medicare covers a large share of a retiree’s medical bills, but it stops short of the one protection many enrollees assume they have: a...
A child can draw Social Security on a retired or disabled parent’s record, adding to a family’s monthly benefit
Most people picture Social Security as a check that arrives for the worker alone, yet a dependent child can draw a benefit on a living...
Social Security’s break-even math shows waiting to claim usually pays off for anyone who lives into their early 80s
Social Security lets a worker start retirement checks as early as age 62, but the timing carries a lasting price tag. Every month a claim...
One worker’s Social Security record can pay a spouse and children up to about 180% of the worker’s benefit
A single Social Security earnings record can support more than one person, but not without limit. When a spouse and dependent children draw benefits on...
A person born before 1954 can still file a restricted application and collect only a spousal benefit while their own check grows
A Social Security claiming maneuver that financial planners once recommended widely now survives for only a narrow slice of retirees. A person born before January...
Public workers hit by the old windfall rule are drawing bigger Social Security checks after the Fairness Act repealed it
For decades, two provisions quietly shaved down the Social Security checks of teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public employees who had also earned a...
Social Security recalculates a working retiree’s check each year and raises it when a new year beats an old one
Retirement does not freeze a Social Security benefit in place. Every year, the Social Security Administration reviews the earnings of people already collecting checks, and...
Suspending Social Security at full retirement age grows the check about 8% a year
Delaying Social Security is usually framed as a decision made before the first check ever arrives, but the program offers a second chance at that...
Withdrawing a Social Security application within 12 months lets a retiree reset the clock, but every dollar already paid must go back
Social Security treats the decision to start retirement benefits as close to final, yet it leaves a single narrow escape hatch. A retiree who files...
Fifteen Medicare drugs, including Ozempic and Wegovy, get lower negotiated prices on January 1 that could cut what 11 million enrollees pay
Fifteen high-cost Medicare Part D drugs, among them the diabetes and weight-loss medicines Ozempic and Wegovy, will carry lower government-negotiated prices starting January 1, 2027....