Category: Benefits & Retirement
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Medicare’s 2027 plan prices do not reach the public comparison tool until sometime in October.
Every fall, headlines announce the average Medicare Advantage or Part D premium for the coming year, usually sometime in September. It’s easy to assume that means you can go online that same week and see exactly what your own 2027 plan options will cost. You can’t. The number that makes headlines in September is a…
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The new drug deals move Medicaid and cash-register prices, and analysts say private insurance and Medicare bills barely budge.
The Trump administration’s latest round of most-favored-nation drug pricing deals, announced August 31, 2026, brought the number of participating manufacturers to 26. The agreements lower what state Medicaid programs pay for brand-name drugs from those companies, and they lower list prices for patients buying directly through the federal TrumpRx website. But read the fine print…
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Medicaid’s new work test will cover about 18.5 million people, and the budget office expects roughly 5.2 million of them to lose coverage.
Starting January 1, 2027, millions of adults who get Medicaid through the program’s expansion group will have to prove they are working, training, volunteering or in school for at least 80 hours a month to keep their coverage. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the requirement will touch about 18.5 million people nationwide, and…
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Twenty-six drugmakers have now agreed to charge Medicaid the lower prices Europe pays, covering 89 percent of the branded drug market.
The Trump administration says 26 pharmaceutical manufacturers have now agreed to sell drugs to state Medicaid programs at the same reduced prices those companies already charge buyers in other wealthy countries. The latest round, announced August 31, 2026, added nine more drugmakers to the list and pushed the share of the U.S. branded prescription drug…
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Veterans’ disability claims are moving 46 percent faster than in January 2025, and the backlog is down more than 70 percent
The Department of Veterans Affairs says the average time it takes to process a disability compensation claim has fallen 46 percent since January 20, 2025, and the backlog of veterans waiting on decisions is down more than 70 percent over the same stretch. VA released both figures in a September 1, 2026 press release that…
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The Medicaid rule would scrap an alternative test that lets states tax hospitals past the usual 6 percent limit
A second piece of the same Medicaid financing overhaul targets a technical rule that has quietly let some states tax hospitals more heavily than the usual federal limit allows. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wants to eliminate what regulators call the 75/75 test, an alternative path that can let a provider tax exceeding…
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Insurers told the government in June which Medicare Advantage plans they would not renew, and members hear in October
Long before any Medicare Advantage member gets a letter about their plan disappearing, the insurer running that plan has already told the federal government its decision. Federal regulation requires a Medicare Advantage organization to notify the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in writing by the first Monday in June if it won’t renew its…
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About 2.28 million people on Medicare filled Ozempic, Rybelsus or Wegovy in one year, costing plans $15.16 billion
No drug on Medicare’s newly negotiated price list cost the program more in 2024 than the trio of Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy. All three are versions of the same active ingredient, semaglutide, sold by Novo Nordisk under different brand names for different uses. Together they were dispensed to about 2.28 million people with Medicare Part…
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The 85 percent cut on the diabetes pill Janumet works out to $80 a month, down from $526
Of the 15 drugs Medicare negotiated new prices for in its second round of talks, none got a bigger percentage discount than Janumet. Merck has agreed to sell the diabetes pill to Medicare drug plans for $80 for a 30-day supply starting January 1, 2027, down from a $526 list price in 2024. That’s an…
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The negotiated Medicare price for the bowel drug Linzess is $136 a month, against a $539 list price
Linzess is not a specialty cancer drug or a rare-disease treatment. It’s a capsule millions of Americans with chronic constipation or irritable bowel syndrome take every day, and it’s now one of the 15 drugs Medicare has negotiated a lower price for. Starting January 1, 2027, a Medicare drug plan will pay AbbVie $136 for…
