Category: Cost of Living
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Heating oil homes, mostly in the Northeast, face a 21 percent jump in winter fuel spending, the Energy Department forecasts
Of all the ways American homes heat, oil is the one headed for the sharpest jump this winter. The Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s statistics agency, forecasts that spending on heating oil will rise 21 percent from last winter. Its October 6 Short-Term Energy Outlook says heating oil prices are up more than 30…
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Health plans must give members personalized cost estimates by phone and online under rules finalized Oct. 5 for plan years starting on or after Jan. 1, 2027
“People should know what their health insurance will cover and what they will need to pay before receiving medical care, not after the bill arrives.” That is how the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services described the goal of new Transparency in Coverage rules in an Oct. 5 announcement. The rules, finalized Oct. 5, require…
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HealthCare.gov open enrollment for 2027 runs Nov. 1 to Jan. 15, and Dec. 15 is the last day to pick a plan that starts Jan. 1
People who buy their own health insurance on HealthCare.gov have until Dec. 15 to pick a 2027 plan that starts on Jan. 1. The federal marketplace’s dates and deadlines page sets open enrollment for 2027 coverage to run from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15. The gap between those two deadlines is what trips people up.…
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California adds a natural gas credit to residential bills starting in February 2027, alongside the electric credit it already applies automatically
February 2027 is the month the California Public Utilities Commission’s fact sheet gives for the first natural gas credit on residential bills. It will sit beside the electric credit that already arrives without an application. The sheet, dated April 30, 2026, describes the whole program as “an automatic direct credit on residential energy bills” and…
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Nearly a month after the White House promised health exchange refunds, no federal agency has published a page saying how they will be paid
Twenty-six days separate the White House’s September 10 promise of $500 health exchange refunds from today, and in that time the agencies that would normally run such a payment have said nothing in writing. As of October 6, 2026, the newsrooms of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Treasury Department and the IRS,…
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The RealPage rent price-fixing settlements go before a judge on October 15, after the deadline to opt out passed on September 22
A judge in Nashville will hear the case for final approval of the RealPage rent settlements on October 15, 2026, and the window for renters to opt out or object has already shut. It closed on September 22. What remains open is the claim form, which the administrator says is due by January 29, 2027.…
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Heating assistance opens to every eligible household on November 1 in Iowa and Illinois, and on November 2 in Pennsylvania
November 1 is the date the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, opens to the general eligible public in Iowa and Illinois, and Pennsylvania follows a day later on November 2. In Iowa and Illinois that is the second stage of a two-step rollout, because older adults and other priority groups were…
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California’s new law will let the insurance commissioner order an insurer to pay restitution straight to a policyholder for unfair claims handling from January 1, 2028, and report an adjuster change within 15 days
California’s insurance commissioner already had the power to make an unlicensed operator pay back the people its conduct harmed. Under Senate Bill 876, signed September 27, 2026, the same power reaches licensed insurers: the commissioner may order a company found to have engaged in an unfair claims settlement practice to pay restitution to the policyholder…
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California’s disaster-insurance law takes effect January 1, 2028 with a mandatory offer of extended replacement cost coverage
California insurers that write residential property policies will have to put an extended replacement cost option, set at no less than 50 percent above the dwelling limit, in front of every applicant and every renewing customer, under Senate Bill 876, the Disaster Recovery Reform Act. The bill was signed September 27, 2026 and filed as…
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Minnesota bars a utility from cutting off a home’s main heat through April 30
Minnesota’s Cold Weather Rule runs from October 1, 2026 through April 30, 2027, and for those seven months a utility may not disconnect a residential customer when the shutoff would cut the home’s primary heating source. Xcel Energy announced the rule’s start on September 29, and the protection comes with conditions: a customer who receives…