Main Street Dollars

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President Donald Trump signed a short-term government funding bill into law on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, keeping federal agencies open and continuing food assistance benefits through December 11. The bill, H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, had cleared the House by a lopsided 370-48 vote the day before it reached his desk.…

Federal Medicaid and CHIP money for certain noncitizens stops October 1

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Starting October 1, 2026, the federal government will stop matching state spending on full Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage for many lawfully present immigrants who are not green-card holders, Cuban or Haitian entrants, or migrants covered under a Compact of Free Association. The change comes from a provision buried in the 2025 federal…

Medicare pays insurers $13.4 billion in bonuses this year, and UnitedHealth takes $3.9 billion

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Medicare will send $13.4 billion in quality bonus payments to Medicare Advantage insurers in 2026, according to an analysis published by KFF, the nonpartisan health policy research organization. That is up from $12.7 billion in 2025 and more than four times the $3.0 billion the program cost a decade earlier, in 2015. The bonuses arrive…

Humana holds 20 percent of Medicare Advantage members but collects 11 percent of the bonus money

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Humana is the second-largest company selling Medicare Advantage plans, covering about one in five of the program’s enrollees nationwide. That kind of footprint would normally translate into a proportional cut of the extra federal dollars Medicare hands out each year to reward higher-quality plans. In 2026, it has not worked out that way. Humana holds…

Seniors without obesity-drug coverage have paid $50 a month since July, and 500,000 of them saved $216 million

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Millions of older Americans who take GLP-1 medications for obesity are now paying a flat $50 a month for the drugs, under a Medicare demonstration that started July 1, 2026. The Trump administration says the program has already produced a nine-figure savings total for seniors who previously had no coverage for these medicines, some of…

Food stamps for a person living alone rise to $306 a month on October 1, and the income cutoff moves to $1,330

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Every October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture resets how much a household on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program can receive, and 2026 is no exception. Starting October 1, the maximum monthly SNAP benefit for someone living alone rises to $306, and the net income test that decides who can even apply for it climbs to…

The count of health systems dropping Medicare Advantage this year has climbed from 25 to 28

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Brian Lund

Becker’s Hospital Review runs a tracker that follows hospitals and health systems ending some or all of their Medicare Advantage contracts, and the number on it keeps climbing. Earlier this month it stood at 25 systems. As of August 31, it reads 28. This isn’t a one-time report — it’s a page Becker’s rewrites in…

Washington is spending $200 million to build the systems that check Medicaid work hours

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Medicaid enrollees who fall under a new work requirement will not just need to log their hours themselves. A state computer system has to catch those hours, verify them, and act on the result, and that is the unglamorous, expensive part of the rule that took effect this summer. Washington has now put a price…

A family of four can earn $3,575 a month and still qualify for food stamps on October 1

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Brian Lund

A four-person household in the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C. can bring in as much as $3,575 a month in gross income and still qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program once the federal fiscal year turns over on October 1. That figure is a ceiling, not a payment amount — it decides whether…

Presbyterian is ending most Medicare Advantage plans for 30,000 New Mexicans after a $59 million loss

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Brian Lund