Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Medicare Advantage plans increasingly come loaded with extras, from flex cards and over-the-counter allowances to dental, vision, and wellness perks, yet a surprising share of those dollars quietly vanish at year’s end. I want to walk through how these benefits actually work, why so many expire on a strict calendar, and the practical steps you…
The final week of Medicare enrollment is when small decisions can lock in big financial consequences for 2026, from your monthly premiums to what you pay at the pharmacy counter. With plan rules, drug caps, and income-based surcharges all shifting at once, the last few days are less about scrambling and more about making sure…
Medicare Part B is about to take a bigger bite out of retiree budgets in 2026, with a sizable jump in monthly premiums that will ripple through household finances. The increase will hit both middle-income retirees and higher earners, and it will land at the same time as modest Social Security benefit growth, tightening the…
Medicare has locked in lower prices on a slate of heavily used prescription drugs, a shift that will ripple through household budgets, federal spending and the broader drug market over the next few years. The first wave covers more than a dozen medications, including blockbuster treatments for Type 2 diabetes, weight loss and chronic lung…
Medicare is central to retirement health planning, but it has significant gaps that can surprise people who assume it works like an all-inclusive health plan. I want to walk through eight key services Medicare will not cover so you can budget realistically, compare options and avoid costly shocks that hit just when you are most…
Republicans in Congress are racing to sell new health policy ideas just as the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits approach their scheduled end, setting up a high-stakes fight over how much help people will get to pay for coverage. The debate is no longer about whether to subsidize insurance at all, but whether…
UnitedHealth Group is preparing to shed roughly 1,000,000 Medicare Advantage members in what amounts to the sharpest retrenchment by a dominant private Medicare player in decades. The move will force older Americans across the country to scramble for new coverage, while signaling that the once relentless growth of private Medicare is entering a more volatile…
A seemingly modest $17.90 increase in the standard Medicare Part B premium can quietly erode the Social Security raise many retirees are counting on for 2026. I want to walk through how that monthly bump in health costs interacts with the cost-of-living adjustment, why some beneficiaries will feel it more than others, and what steps…
Medicare is often seen as a safety net that will cover almost every major health cost in retirement, yet several big-ticket categories are excluded and can quietly climb past $100,000 over time. I focus here on four of the most financially dangerous gaps, explaining what is not covered and why retirees and caregivers need separate…
Retirees who thought Medicare would be a predictable line item in their budgets are discovering that higher income can quietly trigger hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars in extra premiums. The income-based surcharges, known as IRMAA, are hitting people years after they earned the money, and the bills are arriving just as they shift to…