Main Street Dollars

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USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration wants to cut in half the federal share of what it costs states to run the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Right now Washington reimburses state agencies for 50 percent of their SNAP administrative costs — the eligibility workers who process applications, the computer systems behind them, the cards issued to…

SNAP benefit amounts reset October 1, and next year’s numbers are still unpublished

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in Government Programs

Every October 1, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program resets its maximum benefit amounts for the new federal fiscal year, and this year’s reset falls a little more than a month from now. The formula behind that reset is fixed by law and runs on a Thrifty Food Plan calculation the U.S. Department of Agriculture completes…

The IRS lets savers aged 60 to 63 add $11,250 extra to a 401(k) this year

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in 401(k) & IRA

Workers who turn 60, 61, 62 or 63 at any point in 2026 can set aside far more of their pay in a 401(k) or similar workplace plan than any other age group saving through payroll deductions this year. The Internal Revenue Service confirmed the exact 2026 numbers in Notice 2025-67: employees in that four-year…

Social Security’s disability backlog has fallen to 884,000 cases from about 1.3 million

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in Social Security

Social Security’s own performance data show a genuine improvement in how fast the agency decides a first disability claim, even as a second, less visible queue behind it keeps growing. The agency’s August 14 anniversary release credited a redesigned claims process with cutting the initial disability claims backlog by more than 30 percent, from a…

Fairview hospitals stop scheduling UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage patients on January 1

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Fairview Health Services will stop scheduling non-emergency appointments for patients enrolled in UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans starting January 1, 2027, the Minneapolis-based health system confirms on its own patient-notice page. The change reaches every M Health Fairview hospital and clinic across the Twin Cities metro area, plus Fairview Range in Hibbing and Grand Itasca Clinic…

Medicare’s 2027 plan lineup arrives in September, before enrollment opens October 15

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Medicare runs on a fixed fall calendar, and the next few months follow it closely. Sometime in September, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will publish the finalized 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D plan lineup, along with the final average premiums that replace the preliminary figures insurers have been working from all summer.…

Medicare Advantage debit cards must be locked to approved items starting in 2027

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Beginning with the 2027 Medicare Advantage plan year, the prepaid debit cards insurers hand out for groceries, over-the-counter items and other supplemental extras will have to check every purchase against an approved list the instant the card is swiped. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized that requirement on April 2, 2026, writing it…

Stolen SNAP benefits have not been federally replaced since December 2024, and only two states cover the loss

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in Government Programs

Congress let the program that replaced stolen SNAP benefits expire on December 20, 2024, and it has not come back since. For a household whose EBT card gets skimmed or cloned today, that means there is no federal check waiting at the end of a claim form in nearly every state in the country. Only…

Refugees and asylees lose non-emergency Medicaid coverage on October 1

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in Government Programs

Thirty-three days from now, on October 1, 2026, the federal government will stop matching state Medicaid dollars spent on non-emergency care for refugees, asylees, parolees and trafficking survivors nationwide. The cutoff comes from a single provision in this year’s federal budget law, and it does not change anyone’s legal immigration status. It removes the federal…

Medicare set the 2027 base drug premium at $41.33 and dropped the subsidy that softened it

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