Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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The VA proposed cutting its disability application from 15 pages to five and the survivors’ form from 20 to seven
Filling out a VA disability claim has long meant working through a form thick enough to intimidate anyone doing it without help. The Department of Veterans Affairs now has a formal proposal on the table to cut that paperwork down dramatically, along with the separate form survivors use to apply for benefits after a veteran’s…
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Households with someone over 60 can deduct every medical dollar above $35 a month on a SNAP application
Every SNAP application asks about medical expenses, but many households skip past the question because they assume it will not change their benefit. For a household with a member age 60 or older, that assumption can leave real money on the table. Federal rules let those households deduct nearly every dollar they spend on medical…
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Medicare’s Part B deductible rose $26 to $283 before coverage starts paying
Most Medicare beneficiaries never see a bill for Part B the way they’d see one from a doctor’s office, because the premium is typically pulled straight out of a Social Security check before it ever hits a bank account. That makes it easy to miss when the underlying numbers actually change from one year to…
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Earning more than $1,690 a month can end a Social Security disability check, or $2,830 for blind workers
For someone receiving Social Security disability benefits and trying to return to work, one number decides whether a paycheck is safe and another decides whether it’s a threat to the whole benefit. Social Security’s 2026 update raised both: a non-blind worker who earns more than $1,690 in a month can be found capable of substantial…
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Social Security’s phone wait fell from 34 minutes to under a minute
For years, dialing Social Security’s national helpline meant clearing time off the calendar and settling in. The agency’s own performance data show that a caller who reached the 800 number in fiscal year 2024 waited an average of 34 minutes before an agent picked up. Social Security says that number has now fallen below a…
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Medicaid members, not just Medicare Advantage patients, lose in-network Ohio State care under Humana on October 1
When Humana first announced it was heading toward a network split with Ohio State, most of the attention went to Medicare Advantage retirees who could lose access to the Wexner Medical Center. That framing left out a second, larger group facing the same October 1 deadline: Ohioans covered by Humana Healthy Horizons, the company’s Medicaid…
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Walmart will pay $50 million over opioid prescriptions the Justice Department called invalid
Walmart has agreed to pay $50 million to resolve a Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration case built around how the retailer’s pharmacies handled opioid prescriptions for nearly a decade. The deal, announced August 28, closes out a civil lawsuit federal prosecutors first filed in December 2020 in Delaware. It also locks in new compliance…
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The IRS proposed blocking people in the country illegally from the refundable part of the child tax credit
Treasury and the IRS have proposed a new rule that would change who can collect the extra, refunded portion of four popular tax credits. The proposal targets people living in the country illegally, but the mechanics of how it would work, and what it would leave untouched, matter for millions of mixed-status and immigrant households…
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Walmart says $2.9 billion in tariff refunds funded more than 11,000 price rollbacks
Walmart’s most recent quarterly earnings release places two numbers side by side. The retailer says it received nearly $2.9 billion in tariff refunds during its second fiscal quarter of 2027, the three months ending in early August, and that its U.S. stores delivered more than 11,000 price rollbacks over that same stretch. Walmart presents the…
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Every NewYork-Presbyterian hospital leaves UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage network October 1, though patients in treatment keep coverage into December
New Yorkers covered by a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan have spent much of 2026 watching a contract fight between their insurer and one of the region’s largest hospital systems play out one deadline at a time. The latest extension pushes the cutoff to September 30, with a new one taking its place on October 1…
