Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Veterans who prepaid VA life insurance can get a refund for the three-month premium holiday, worth about $330 on average
The Department of Veterans Affairs will exempt more than 457,000 policyholders from three months of Veterans’ Group Life Insurance premiums this winter, and the agency says veterans who already paid those months in advance will not lose the benefit. VA estimates the three-month holiday is worth an average of $330 per policyholder, and it applies…
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Endeavor Health leaves Aetna’s Medicare Advantage network January 1, but Illinois state retirees in the TRAIL plan are spared
Endeavor Health, the Chicago-area hospital system formed from the merger of NorthShore and Edward-Elmhurst, says it will step outside Aetna’s Medicare Advantage network starting Jan. 1, 2027. The change reaches patients who use an Aetna Medicare Advantage plan at Endeavor’s hospitals and clinics, though two groups keep their in-network access. Illinois state retirees enrolled in…
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The VA overpaid one veteran about $43,000 over 16 months, and about $2,700 a month is still going out
Sixteen months of full disability payments kept arriving after a Department of Veterans Affairs employee proposed cutting a veteran’s rating for lung cancer from 100 percent to 30 percent, citing improvement. The proposal never turned into a final decision. Before the case could be resolved, a different claims processor canceled the paperwork tracking it —…
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A federal judge permanently blocked Trump administration food stamp penalties on 22 states given one day to cut off some green-card holders
USDA gave states one calendar day. On Oct. 31, 2025, the agency issued guidance telling states how to remove certain lawful permanent residents from SNAP rolls; the compliance deadline attached to it was Nov. 1, 2025. A federal judge in Oregon has now ruled that timeline, and the fines the administration threatened over it, permanently…
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Fewer than 20 million households got food stamps in June, about 2.6 million fewer than a year earlier
Food stamp households fell below 20 million in the United States for the first time in the four years covered by USDA’s monthly participation table. In June 2026, 19,807,327 households received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, down from 22,388,730 households in June 2025, a drop of 2,581,403 households, or about 2.6 million, over twelve months.…
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One SSI recipient’s unreported cars made $11,532 in checks improper over a single year
A Supplemental Security Income recipient told the Social Security Administration about buying one vehicle in August 2019. Public vehicle records later showed the same person owned additional cars from October 2024 through September 2025, and once auditors added up what all of those vehicles were worth, the total pushed the recipient’s countable resources over SSI’s…
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A veteran’s heart rating was cut on a faulty notice, leaving him about $26,600 short and still losing about $2,200 a month
A Department of Veterans Affairs claims processor proposed cutting a veteran’s heart-condition disability rating from 100 percent to 10 percent, pointing to a clear and unmistakable error in the earlier decision that had granted the higher rating. The notice that actually reached the veteran gave a different reason: that his heart condition had improved. That…
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Pennsylvania mails Medicaid change letters to nearly 700,000 ahead of January 2027
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services announced on September 10, 2026 that nearly 700,000 Medicaid recipients would begin receiving letters that week about federal changes scheduled to start in January 2027, including work requirements and renewals every six months. The letter is the first in a series of communications, and the department said automated calls…
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New Mexico projects 101,760 Medicaid members could lose coverage under six-month renewals
New Mexico’s Health Care Authority projects that about 101,760 Medicaid members could lose coverage for at least two months because of the more frequent eligibility checks that begin January 1, 2027. The estimate, released at an August 31, 2026 news conference, comes as the state prepares to move working-age adults covered through Medicaid expansion from…
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Pennsylvania Medicaid applications filed in 2026 still get up to three months of back coverage
Pennsylvanians who apply for Medicaid before January 1, 2027 can still receive up to three months of retroactive coverage for earlier medical bills, even if the state does not finish processing the application until after the new year, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services said on September 22, 2026. Applications received on or after January…