Category: Benefits & Retirement
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The second of the three inflation readings that set next year’s Social Security raise publishes Friday morning
Retirees waiting to see how much bigger their Social Security check might get in January are getting only the second of three pieces of data this morning. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to publish the August Consumer Price Index at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Friday, September 11 — one of three monthly inflation…
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Health systems dropping Medicare Advantage contracts reached 29 by September 4
Becker’s Hospital Review counted 29 health systems that have dropped or are set to drop Medicare Advantage contracts in 2026, an update the trade publication posted on September 4. The number matters less as a single statistic than as a signal: providers and insurers are still fighting over Medicare Advantage terms well into the year,…
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Veterans and homeless adults lost their food stamp work exemption
Veterans and people experiencing homelessness no longer get an automatic pass from the SNAP work-and-time-limit rule that used to protect them by name. A 2023 law had carved out specific exceptions for veterans, homeless individuals, and young adults aging out of foster care, keeping them off the three-month food stamp clock regardless of employment status.…
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The $500 health exchange refund reaches only the 30 federal-marketplace states
A person shopping for ACA coverage in California and a person doing the same thing in Texas can land on two different systems without ever realizing it: one run by their own state government, one run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services through the federal HealthCare.gov platform. That split, mostly invisible to enrollees…
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Ohio called off the October 1 ban on buying sugary drinks with food stamps
Ohio grocery and convenience stores spent the summer getting ready to reject certain sugary drinks from food-stamp purchases starting October 1. That rule is now paused, not because Ohio changed course, but because the federal agency that runs the program asked the state to hold off. For households on SNAP, the drinks that were about…
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Food stamps for a three-person household reach $808 a month on October 1
A monthly grocery-benefit ceiling that has held at $785 for three-person households since October 2025 is about to move. Beginning Oct. 1, 2026, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is raising the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program allotment for a household of three in the 48 states and the District of Columbia to $808. The change…
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Food stamp recipients aged 55 to 64 can now be cut off after three months under the rewritten work rule
A provision buried inside the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has pulled hundreds of thousands of older food stamp recipients into a work rule that used to stop at age 54. Since the law took effect in July 2025, adults age 55 through 64 who do not have dependents living with them now count toward…
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The White House announced $500 refund checks for people who paid full price on the federal health exchange, starting in October
On September 10, 2026, the White House published a fact sheet announcing that the federal government will send $500 checks this fall to nearly 1 million Americans the administration says were overcharged on Affordable Care Act exchange plans. The announcement frames the money as a refund of fees built into Obamacare premiums, not a new…
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Most parents cannot tell which Medicaid pathway covers them, and only the expansion group faces the work rule.
Not every parent on Medicaid answers to the same set of rules, and the new work requirement is exposing how many people don’t know which set applies to them. One group of parents has been shielded from Medicaid work rules for decades under a mandatory coverage category that predates the Affordable Care Act. Another group,…
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A state may hand the Medicaid work-rule notice to its managed care plan to mail.
Some states writing their Medicaid work-requirement outreach plans this year made a choice that surprised a few advocates: instead of mailing every notice from a state office, they handed part of the job to the private health insurance companies that already run their Medicaid managed care plans. Under the federal rule, that is explicitly allowed,…
