Category: Benefits & Retirement
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Medicaid’s retroactive coverage window drops to two months for people 65 and older on January 1
Medicaid has long carried a provision that assumes people do not apply for it at the moment they need it. Since 1972, coverage could reach back three months before the month a person applied, paying bills already incurred as long as the applicant would have qualified then. That backward-looking window is being cut, and the…
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Two waiting periods that slowed Medicare sales pitches are gone this enrollment season
For the past several years, a Medicare beneficiary who signed a form at an informational seminar had two days of quiet before an agent could legally pitch them a plan. That gap was built into federal regulation on the theory that a decision worth thousands of dollars a year should not be made in the…
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Medicare’s 2027 base drug-plan premium rises the full 6 percent the law allows
Medicare’s Part D program has a number that almost nobody pays and everybody’s premium is built from. For 2027 it is $41.33, and the way CMS arrived at it says more about the state of drug coverage than the figure itself does. The agency did not choose that number. It is the highest number the…
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Providence Health Plan is shutting down, and more than 64,000 Medicare Advantage members must find new coverage
For most of this year, Providence Health Plan’s Medicare Advantage members had reason to think they would be spared. When the Oregon nonprofit said in May that it was leaving most of the insurance business, it carved out its Medicare Advantage book and said it was negotiating to hand those members to a national carrier…
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Trump’s promised $2,000 tariff dividend checks are still only a proposal with no funding path
The short answer for anyone waiting on a $2,000 check from tariff revenue is that there is no check coming right now. President Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of “tariff dividend” payments to Americans, but as of today no such payment is scheduled, funded, or written into law. A Supreme Court ruling earlier this…
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Medicare’s yearly cap on out-of-pocket drug costs rises to $2,100 in 2026
For anyone on expensive prescriptions, Medicare now has a firm ceiling on what a year of covered drugs can cost. The Part D out-of-pocket maximum rises to $2,100 in 2026, up from $2,000 in 2025. Reach it, and your plan pays 100 percent of your covered drugs for the rest of the year. It is…
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A widow or widower can step up to 100 percent of a late spouse’s Social Security
When a spouse dies, Social Security offers a survivor benefit that is far larger than many people realize — and getting the timing right can mean thousands of dollars over a retirement. A surviving spouse can receive up to 100 percent of what the deceased worker was getting or entitled to, and a widow or…
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Divorced after at least 10 years, you can claim up to half an ex-spouse’s Social Security
One of the most overlooked benefits Social Security pays is one many divorced people assume they lost in the divorce. If your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you may be able to claim a benefit worth up to half of your ex-spouse’s full retirement amount — and doing so takes nothing away from your…
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A Trump order opens the door for 401(k) plans to hold private equity and crypto
The menu of investments inside a 401(k) may be about to widen, and not everything on the new menu is simple. A Trump executive order directed federal regulators to make it easier for workplace retirement plans to offer alternative assets — private equity, real estate, and digital assets like crypto — and the Labor Department…
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A hospital leaving your Medicare Advantage network can push your out-of-pocket cap from $5,421 to $9,825
A Medicare Advantage plan comes with a promise most people rarely test: a hard ceiling on what a bad health year can cost you. What fewer members realize is that the ceiling has two heights, and which one applies depends on whether your care stays inside the plan’s network. When a hospital drops out of…
