Main Street Dollars

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One of the most valuable Medicare benefits is also one of the most overlooked: a program called Extra Help that can erase most of what lower-income enrollees pay for prescription drugs. It can wipe out the Part D drug-plan premium and deductible and cut copays to a few dollars per prescription. Yet many people who…

Claimed Social Security too early? You can withdraw within 12 months and restart for a bigger check

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Claiming Social Security early is one of the few big retirement decisions that comes with a do-over — but only if you act fast. Within 12 months of starting benefits, you can withdraw your application, pay back what you have received, and reset the clock as if you never claimed. Do it, and the permanent…

A Trump order seeks to tie what Medicare pays for drugs to the lower prices paid abroad

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in Medicare

A Trump executive order is pushing to tie what Medicare pays for certain prescription drugs to the lower prices that other wealthy countries pay for the same medicines. The idea, often called “most favored nation” pricing, is that the United States should not pay several times what Germany or Canada pays for an identical drug.…

Medicare’s Part B premium is projected near $209.50 a month in 2027

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in Medicare

The standard Medicare Part B premium, which most beneficiaries have deducted straight from their Social Security checks, is projected to rise to about $209.50 a month in 2027. That is an estimate drawn from the Medicare trustees’ own numbers, not the official rate — that lands in November — but it gives retirees a realistic…

Retired teachers, police and firefighters are collecting up to $587 more a month after two Social Security cuts were repealed

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Retired teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public workers are seeing bigger Social Security checks — in many cases hundreds of dollars more a month — after Congress repealed two provisions that had cut their benefits for decades. The change comes from the Social Security Fairness Act, which eliminated the Windfall Elimination Provision and the…

Working before full retirement age, Social Security holds $1 for every $2 you earn over $24,480

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If you claim Social Security before your full retirement age and keep working, the agency holds back $1 in benefits for every $2 you earn above $24,480 in 2026. It surprises a lot of people who assume that once they file, their check is theirs to keep no matter what they earn. The good news…

States can now charge Medicaid expansion adults up to $35 for a visit under the new law

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in Government Programs

Millions of adults who got health coverage through Medicaid expansion — and who have paid little or nothing at the doctor’s office — can now be charged up to $35 for a service under the 2025 federal law. States are permitted, and in some cases required, to impose these cost-sharing charges on expansion enrollees whose…

Social Security can now wipe out an overpayment of $2,000 or less with a single waiver request

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If Social Security says it paid you too much, a smaller overpayment can now be cleared with a single waiver request rather than a drawn-out fight. The agency treats overpayments of $2,000 or less differently from large ones, allowing them to be waived through a simplified process when the mistake was not your fault. For…

Social Security’s 2027 raise is now tracking near 3.5 percent as inflation cools

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The raise Social Security beneficiaries will see in January 2027 is shaping up to land near 3.5 percent, according to the latest estimates released after this summer’s inflation reports. That is a projection, not a promise — the official figure will not be set until October 14 — but it gives retirees a realistic number…

SNAP’s 80-hour work rule now reaches parents of teenagers and adults up to 64, or the food benefit stops

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