Author: Brian Lund
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Households with someone over 60 can hold $4,500 in savings and still get SNAP
Older adults living on a fixed income often assume that having a few thousand dollars set aside disqualifies them from food assistance entirely. That assumption is wrong for a specific group of households, and it may be costing eligible seniors benefits they never apply for. Federal SNAP rules set a higher savings ceiling for households…
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A high income adds up to $91 a month to a Medicare drug plan on top of the premium
Medicare’s prescription drug coverage comes with its own income-based surcharge, separate from the one attached to Part B, and it hits a different group of people for a different amount. For 2026, the top tier of that surcharge climbed to $91 a month, charged on top of whatever premium a person already pays for their…
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Medicare’s hospital deductible rose to $1,736, and it applies to each benefit period
Starting January 1, 2026, Medicare’s Part A inpatient hospital deductible climbed to $1,736, up $60 from 2025’s $1,676. It shows up all at once, at the start of a stay, in the form of a deductible that resets every time a new benefit period begins. For 2026, that number moved higher again, and the way…
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Social Security stops taxing wages above $184,500 this year, a jump of $8,400
A worker who crosses $184,500 in wages sometime this year will notice a line item on their pay stub change: the 6.2 percent Social Security tax that had been coming out of every paycheck simply stops. Social Security raised that wage ceiling by $8,400 for 2026, the biggest single-year dollar increase in the program’s history,…
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Supplemental Security Income pays up to $994, and $2,000 in savings ends it
Supplemental Security Income is built for people who have almost nothing else to fall back on, and its two defining numbers tell that story every year. Social Security’s 2026 update raises the maximum federal SSI payment to $994 a month for an individual, or $1,491 for a couple. The other defining number in the program…
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Victims aged 59 to 87 lost $7.5 million in cash and gold, prosecutors say
More than $7.5 million in cash and gold moved from nine elderly victims to a single alleged courier, according to federal prosecutors in Buffalo. Nine people in New York and New Jersey, ranging from 59 to 87 years old, were talked into converting their savings into cash and gold and then handing it to a…
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Original Medicare is testing AI prior authorization, and the companies reviewing claims are paid a share of the savings
Original Medicare has always let patients see any provider or supplier who accepts it, with claims paid after the fact under long-published coverage rules. A new model launched this year adds a layer that looks more like commercial insurance: outside companies using artificial intelligence and machine learning to help decide, in advance in some cases,…
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Trump opened a 300,000-ton duty-free quota on imported beef starting September 1 to bring down ground beef prices
Ground beef has been one of the more visible price increases at U.S. grocery stores this year, and the federal government just made a second attempt this year to address it through trade policy rather than direct payments. A presidential proclamation signed August 26 temporarily expands how much beef can enter the country without paying…
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The $700 million Google Play settlement is now paying out, mostly without a claim form
Google’s Play Store customers who spent money on apps and in-app purchases between August 2016 and September 2023 are starting to see money move back into their accounts. A federal judge signed off on the $700 million antitrust settlement earlier this month, clearing the final legal hurdle in a five-year fight over how Google ran…
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South Carolina blocks soda and candy on SNAP cards August 31, and North Dakota does the same September 1
Grocery shoppers using SNAP benefits in South Carolina and North Dakota are about to see fewer items ring up as eligible purchases. Both states received federal waivers letting them remove certain products from the program’s approved food list, and the clock has nearly run out on the old rules. The changes take effect one day…
