Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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CMS names nine groups exempt from the Medicaid work rule, including veterans with a total disability rating
Nine categories of people will never have to prove they worked, trained or volunteered a single hour to keep Medicaid, once the program’s new community-engagement requirement takes hold. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services carved them out entirely in the interim final rule it issued June 1, 2026 — a permanent exemption, not a…
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Phoenix, Dallas, Houston and Atlanta see the federal rent ceiling drop October 1 while Los Angeles and Chicago climb
Two of the country’s largest rental markets got more room to charge under a federal rent ceiling this fall, while five others got less. Los Angeles and Chicago are among the metro areas where HUD’s newly published Fair Market Rents rose sharply for fiscal year 2027, effective October 1, 2026. Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, San Diego…
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The average tax refund ran $3,276, up $337 from last season
By the time the IRS closed the books on its final weekly tally of the 2026 filing season, the count that ran through May 8, the average individual refund stood at $3,276, up $337 from the $2,939 average at the same point in the 2025 season. That comparison comes from the agency’s own season-ending data…
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Social Security is pulling bank and payroll data on SSI recipients
The Social Security Administration told Congress on July 24 that it is expanding two computerized checks on Supplemental Security Income recipients: one that verifies bank account balances, and one that pulls wage data straight from payroll providers. For the more than seven million people who receive SSI, this is not a new intrusion into their…
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A 90-day duty break on imported beef trimmings runs through November, aimed at ground beef that cost 9.4 percent more in the latest reading
Ground beef has been one of the more painful line items at the register this year, and the White House is trying a temporary fix: a 90-day window that lets more imported beef trimmings into the country at a lower tariff rate so processors can blend it with U.S. beef for ground beef. The relief…
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Home insurance rose in 45 states and the District of Columbia last year, and held flat or fell in only five
Home insurance premiums climbed in nearly every corner of the country in 2025, according to a report the insurance-comparison company Insurify published in March 2026. Prices rose in 45 states and Washington, D.C., while only five states saw rates hold level or move lower. For a typical household, that increase rarely arrives as its own…
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Medicare’s annual enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, and the plan letter arriving this month spells out what changes January 1
Every Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollee should expect a notice in the mail this month that quietly does more to shape next year’s coverage than almost anything else Medicare sends out. It’s the Annual Notice of Change, and it lands just ahead of the one Medicare deadline that actually forces a decision: whether to…
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Treasury has proposed making taxpayers swear under penalty of perjury before a refundable credit is paid out
Two federal agencies have proposed making taxpayers sign a new perjury declaration before they can collect the refundable portion of four common tax credits, tying eligibility for that money to citizenship or immigration status for what would be the first time inside the individual tax code. The rule is not in effect, and no return…
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The federal cushion on Medicare drug plan premiums ends after December
A federal program built to keep Medicare drug plan premiums from swinging wildly is being shut down, and CMS made the announcement in the same release where it published a 2027 figure that’s easy to mistake for an actual bill. The program is the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration; the figure is the $41.33 “base…
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Extension filers have until October 15, and a return more than 60 days late carries a minimum $525 penalty
Roughly 19 million taxpayers asked the IRS for extra time to file their 2025 return this year, and that borrowed time runs out on October 15. For most of them the stakes are more than a scolding letter — a return that arrives more than 60 days after that date now triggers a minimum penalty…
