Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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With gas averaging $4.74, Indiana, Utah, Illinois and Kentucky have cut or frozen gas taxes as Ohio weighs a 90-day break
Four states have already moved to cut, freeze or suspend their gas taxes this year, and a fifth is now deciding whether to join them. Indiana, Utah, Illinois and Kentucky have each taken a different route to lower the tax portion of the pump price, while Ohio lawmakers are weighing a 90-day suspension of their…
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Weight-loss drugs add a full point to employer health cost growth in 2027
Rising use of GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs is adding a full percentage point to the growth of employer health benefit costs for 2027, according to Mercer’s annual survey of employer-sponsored health plans. Employers overall expect total health benefit costs to rise 8.2 percent next year, and Mercer’s survey attributes one point of that increase…
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Cutting overpriced drug payments saved Medicare and its enrollees $78 million since 2013, a federal watchdog found
Medicare and its enrollees saved $78 million since 2013 by paying adjusted, lower prices for certain drugs administered under Part B rather than the prices manufacturers originally reported, according to a data brief the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General released September 21, 2026. Of that total, $1.6 million came from…
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UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members lose NKC Health’s network on October 1
Patients covered by a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan will lose in-network access to NKC Health starting October 1, 2026, according to a coverage-update notice the health system posted for patients. The change touches several UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage products at once, and it lands two weeks before Medicare’s annual window for switching plans opens. For patients…
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Medicare’s Part B premium could hit $360.60 a month by 2035, trustees project
Medicare’s Part B premium could reach $360.60 a month by 2035, according to projections in the 2026 Medicare Trustees Report. That figure is a projection, not an announced or final premium, and it describes a path the trustees expect the standard monthly premium to follow over the next nine years if current trends continue. The…
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Veterans waited about 12 days to hear whether the VA would pay for outside care, four times its three-business-day rule
A federal watchdog review released September 24, 2026, found that veterans who asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay for medical care outside its own hospitals waited an average of about 12 days to learn whether that request was approved. VA’s own rule calls for that decision within three business days. The Veterans Affairs…
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Auditors project 4,347 surviving spouses over 70 missed $108.5 million in Social Security benefits
Auditors project that 4,347 surviving spouses already past age 70 have missed a combined $108.5 million in Social Security benefits because a required recalculation never happened, according to a March 2026 report from the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General. The estimate covers widow and widower beneficiaries whose payments should have grown to…
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Social Security paid $342 million to student beneficiaries without a required school form
A required school form was missing from enough Social Security case files that the payments made without it reached $342 million over three years, according to a September 23, 2026 audit from the agency’s Office of the Inspector General. The missing document, Form SSA-1372, is supposed to confirm that an 18- or 19-year-old beneficiary is…
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Costco cut Kirkland walnuts from $13.79 to $9.99 and says part of its tariff refunds will go into lower member prices
Costco trimmed the price of a two-pound bag of Kirkland Signature walnuts from $13.79 to $9.99 as part of the fourth-quarter results it reported on September 24, 2026. Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip named the walnut cut on the earnings call alongside three other reductions, and Chief Executive Officer Ron Vachris told analysts the company…
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Trump says he has called for a ban on diesel exports as diesel hits $6.52, and the oil industry says it would only compound the problem
President Trump says he has called for a ban on diesel exports, and the national average price of diesel reached $6.52 a gallon on September 23. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration is examining whether a full ban or a partial ban would work. The American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s largest trade group,…