Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Health care is one of the biggest wild cards in retirement, and for many older Americans it is the line item that keeps the budget from ever feeling secure. Premiums, copays, dental work, hearing aids and prescriptions can easily run into thousands of dollars a year, even for people who planned carefully. There is, however,…
The Trump administration’s latest Medicare Advantage proposal is less a tweak than a stress test for a program that now covers tens of millions of seniors. By pairing a near‑flat payment update with a crackdown on how plans document patient illnesses, the White House is betting it can squeeze out waste without triggering a backlash…
Across the United States, older adults on Medicare Advantage are quietly forfeiting hundreds of dollars a year in basic health supplies they are already entitled to receive. A viral warning video spells it out bluntly: if you ignore your over-the-counter allowance, you are literally throwing $650 down the toilet. The new wave of free benefits-finding…
For many Americans, selling a longtime home after 63 is supposed to unlock freedom, not new bills. Yet a big profit on that sale can quietly push your income into a zone where Medicare premiums spike for at least a year. The shock often arrives as a terse notice from Social Security, long after the…
For millions of retirees, the biggest Medicare shock in 2026 is not a new benefit or a coverage gap, but a line item buried in their premium notice. The Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount, or IRMAA, is quietly turning routine health coverage into a costly surprise for roughly 3.5 million higher income beneficiaries who discover too…
Phone scammers have turned Medicare into a hunting ground, bombarding older Americans with a volume and precision that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Complaints about fraudulent pitches tied to the program have surged by roughly 40 percent, and investigators say the callers are now armed with detailed personal and medical data bought…
Telehealth is about to hit another cliff, and this one is measured not in policy jargon but in people. If Congress fails to act within days, 67 m Americans could see virtual visits with their doctors cut off or sharply curtailed, as temporary rules that have governed remote care since the early pandemic finally run…
Health care costs are climbing sharply for families, yet the political story coming out of Washington is about villains and saviors rather than spreadsheets. President Donald Trump is again casting big insurance companies as the main culprits behind your rising premiums, even as his own policies help shape those bills. The result is a familiar…
Congress is moving to keep Affordable Care Act subsidies in place, but the same coalition that backs cheaper coverage is now colliding over abortion language that could reshape what plans are allowed to cover. The result is a high‑stakes standoff in which a fight over procedure rules could end up driving premiums sharply higher for…
Billions in Medicare benefits are quietly expiring every year while older Americans juggle rising prices on everything from groceries to prescriptions. A new generation of tools is trying to flip that script, helping seniors actually use the coverage they already pay for instead of leaving it on the table. One free app, built around Medicare’s…