Category: Benefits & Retirement
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Medicaid will pay only one month of old hospital bills for adults who apply after January 1
Right now, if you land in the hospital, don’t have Medicaid yet, and don’t get around to applying for three months, Medicaid can still pick up bills going back to the day you first qualified. Starting with applications filed on January 1, 2027, that cushion for one large group of adults shrinks to a single…
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A court blocked the food stamp soda and candy bans in five states, and shoppers there can still buy both
Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia all rolled out plans this year to stop food-stamp shoppers from using their benefits on soda and candy. A federal court in Washington threw out all five bans in June, and more than two months later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s own tracking page still shows the same…
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Medicare Advantage plans will have to publish who actually qualifies for the grocery and utility allowances they advertise
Medicare Advantage commercials have spent years promising enrollees hundreds of dollars a year for groceries, produce or a home utility bill. What the ads rarely mention is that the money isn’t available to everyone who signs up. It is reserved for enrollees who meet a chronic-illness definition that each insurer writes for itself, and until…
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Twenty-nine health systems have dropped a Medicare Advantage contract this year, four of them in the last month
A running count kept by Becker’s Hospital Review now shows 29 health systems that have ended, or are actively ending, a contract with a Medicare Advantage insurer at some point in 2026, up from 25 just weeks earlier. For the roughly half of Medicare enrollees who have chosen an Advantage plan over Original Medicare, that…
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Molina is dropping its traditional Medicare Advantage drug plans for 2027, a product carrying about $1 billion in annual premiums
Molina Healthcare says it will drop its traditional Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans starting with the 2027 plan year, walking away from a product line that brings in roughly $1 billion a year in premiums. The insurer disclosed the move inside its own fourth-quarter 2025 earnings report, framing it as a strategic pivot rather than…
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Benefits sites list the VA survivor pension ceiling at $19,453, and the VA’s own page says $18,697
A surviving military spouse who searches for the maximum VA Survivors Pension payment will run into two different numbers depending on where they look. Several benefits and elder-law websites list $19,453 as the top rate for 2026. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ own current rate table lists $18,697 as the maximum for a surviving spouse…
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A wartime veteran who needs daily care can draw $29,093 a year, but only under a $163,699 net worth limit
A wartime veteran who can no longer bathe, dress or eat without help can qualify for a VA pension add-on worth $29,093 a year on top of the base pension, money aimed squarely at the cost of long-term care. The same veteran can lose the entire benefit if countable net worth tops $163,699, a ceiling…
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A surviving military spouse receives $1,699.36 a month, and $421 more when she needs daily help
When a service member dies from a service-connected cause, or a veteran carried a total disability rating for years before dying, the Department of Veterans Affairs pays their surviving spouse a monthly benefit called Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, or DIC. As of December 1, 2025, the base DIC payment for a surviving spouse is $1,699.36…
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A total disability rating exempts a veteran from Medicaid’s new work rule, and so does caring for a child under 14
A veteran who carries a total disability rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs will not have to prove they worked, trained, or volunteered to keep their Medicaid coverage once the program’s new work test takes hold. Neither will someone who spends their days caring for a child who hasn’t turned 14. Those are two…
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Earning $580 a month satisfies Medicaid’s new work rule without logging a single hour
A new federal Medicaid rule requires most working-age adults on the program to prove 80 hours a month of work, job training, schooling or community service to keep their coverage, starting no later than January 1, 2027. Buried inside that rule is a second, far simpler way to clear the same bar: show at least…
