Medicare & Social Security support center
Enrollment and income-benefit guidance so retirees avoid delays, penalties, and coverage surprises.
What you'll find here: Enrollment deadlines, documentation checklists, and call prep for Medicare and Social Security offices.
Time-sensitive update
Every number you've seen so far, including any state comparison, is still an estimate. The percentage Social Security announces October 14 applies the same to every state. Multiply your own current monthly benefit by that percentage, not by a dollar figure from a headline about your state, then confirm the result in your mySocialSecurity account or December's mailed notice.
Date to note: Official percentage announced October 14, 2026
Read related action guide
Medicare is testing a new way to pay for some brand-name drugs, tied to prices in other countries. Here's who it actually reaches first, and what it doesn't change yet.
Medicare & Social Security
Congress passed a bill renaming Social Security's claiming ages: 62 becomes the minimum benefit age, 67 the standard age, 70 the maximum. The dollar math and your claiming decision stay exactly the same.
Medicare & Social Security
The 2027 cost-of-living raise is the same percentage everywhere, but your state's typical benefit decides the real dollar amount. Check where your state falls before you count on a number.
Medicare & Social SecurityTrack offices, issues, promised next steps, and follow-up dates in one running log.
Prepare short, specific Medicare or Social Security questions before your next call.
Rules, enrollment windows, and filing dates can close quickly. This guide is the best next step if you only have 10 minutes today.
Social Security's Claiming Ages Just Got New NamesMedicare is testing a new way to pay for some brand-name drugs, tied to prices in other countries. Here's who it actually reaches first, and what it doesn't change yet.
Medicare & Social SecurityCongress passed a bill renaming Social Security's claiming ages: 62 becomes the minimum benefit age, 67 the standard age, 70 the maximum. The dollar math and your claiming decision stay exactly the same.
Medicare & Social SecurityThe 2027 cost-of-living raise is the same percentage everywhere, but your state's typical benefit decides the real dollar amount. Check where your state falls before you count on a number.
Medicare & Social Security
If you qualify for both a survivor benefit and your own Social Security retirement benefit, you don't get both. Here's how to compare the two at your age, and when switching later can raise your lifetime total.
Medicare & Social Security
Some senior living communities are partnering with a single Medicare Advantage insurer to serve residents. Ask specific network and doctor questions on your tour, so a housing move doesn't quietly change your medical coverage too.
Medicare & Social Security
A newly introduced House bill would let workers in physically demanding jobs claim full Social Security benefits at 60 instead of waiting to 62 or later. Here's what it would actually require, and what to do while it's pending.
Medicare & Social Security
Every Medicare Advantage plan mails an Annual Notice of Change by September 30 listing next year's costs, drugs, and network. Most retirees toss it. Reading it before December 7 is the only way to catch a bad change in time.
Medicare & Social Security
Medicare Advantage lets you enroll or switch most years with no health questions asked. Medigap only guarantees that once, for six months. Check this before open enrollment closes.
Medicare & Social Security
A new analysis shows Social Security covers 83 percent of income for the lowest-earning retirees and 46 percent for middle earners. Calculate your own share, then decide if you need a bigger cash buffer.
Medicare & Social Security
Medicare sets next year's premium from a tax return two years old. If you retired partway through this year, that return still shows your full salary unless you file Form SSA-44 first.
Medicare & Social Security
A new analysis says most retirees collect far more in lifetime Social Security benefits than they and their employer paid in payroll taxes. See the real numbers and what they mean for your own benefit.
Medicare & Social Security
Social Security announces the 2027 cost-of-living adjustment on October 14, along with the new earnings limit and wage cap. Here's exactly what gets decided that day and what to confirm before it arrives.
Medicare & Social Security
Medicare Open Enrollment runs October 15 through December 7, and 2027 plan changes are already landing. Here is exactly what to pull together before your mail and the ads start arriving.
Medicare & Social Security
A floated proposal would have states fund part of Medicare instead of the federal government. Here is what the idea would actually change for your coverage and costs, before any bill is written.
Medicare & Social Security
A federal appeals court rejected the drug industry's latest lawsuit against Medicare's price negotiation program. Here's what stays in place, which drugs are affected, and how to check your own prescriptions.
Medicare & Social Security
Social Security's retirement trust fund is projected to run short in 2032. Here's how much more a single retiree would need saved in your state, with or without a benefit cut, and how to check your own number.
Medicare & Social Security
A separate Social Security reform idea would replace each retiree's percentage-based raise with the same flat dollar increase for everyone. See how it differs from the high-earner COLA cap already in the news.
Medicare & Social Security
Social Security retirement benefits require 40 work credits, about 10 years of covered work, before the agency pays anything. Here's how credits are earned, who falls short, and what options remain if you do.
Medicare & Social Security
A bipartisan proposal would cap future Social Security cost-of-living raises for the highest earners to help the program's trust fund. Here's who it would affect and how to check your own numbers.
Medicare & Social Security
Waiting past full retirement age grows your own Social Security benefit by roughly 8% a year, but a spousal benefit stops growing at full retirement age. Confirm which benefit applies before you decide when to claim.
Medicare & Social Security
Flu, shingles, RSV, and COVID vaccines are covered under two different parts of Medicare, and mixing them up can mean an unnecessary bill at the pharmacy counter this fall.
Medicare & Social Security
For decades, 66 was the number everyone associated with full retirement age. If you were born in 1960, that number no longer applies to you. See what your real full retirement age is and how it changes your claiming decision.
Medicare & Social Security
Fresh inflation data pushed several 2027 Social Security COLA forecasts lower this week. Here's what changed since the last estimate, and how to recheck your own number before you plan around it.
Medicare & Social Security
Insurers are dropping Medicare Advantage plans in counties across the country for 2027. Here's how to find out if your plan is affected and what to do before open enrollment.
Medicare & Social Security
A federal subsidy that has kept standalone Medicare Part D premiums lower since 2025 ends December 31, 2026. Here's who is affected, what a roughly $16 a month increase could mean for your plan, and what to check before open enrollment.
Medicare & Social Security
Federal and postal retirees who keep FEHB into retirement face coordination decisions Medicare's general rules don't spell out. Here's how the two actually work together, and the questions worth asking before you choose.
Medicare & Social Security
CMS has proposed making its Medicare drug price negotiation rules permanent instead of temporary. Here is what the proposal covers, which drugs are affected, and how to track whether it takes effect.
Medicare & Social Security
Almost nobody collects Social Security's largest possible monthly check. The requirements are specific: 35 years at the taxable maximum and claiming at 70. Find your real number instead of the headline one.
Medicare & Social Security
Early estimates put the 2027 Social Security raise near 3.8%, around $70 a month. But a bigger Medicare Part B premium comes out of that money before it reaches your account. Estimate your real net increase now, not in December.
Medicare & Social Security
The 2026 Medicare Trustees Report moved up the Hospital Insurance fund's depletion date and flagged rising Part B and D premiums. Here's what to check before Open Enrollment, whatever coverage you have.
Medicare & Social Security
A Medicare Advantage network built around one state may not cover routine care in the other. Confirm your plan travels before a visit becomes a denied claim.
Medicare & Social Security
A budget proposal in Congress would raise Social Security's full retirement age from 67 to 69. Here's who it would actually affect, why it works like a benefit cut, and what to confirm now.
Medicare & Social Security
CMS is ending the program that has been holding down stand-alone Medicare drug plan premiums. Some plans will see a bigger jump for 2027 than others. Here's how to see your real number before you renew.
Medicare & Social Security
If a serious health condition hits after you've already claimed Social Security retirement benefits, switching to disability can sometimes recover money you gave up early. Here's who qualifies and how the request works.
Medicare & Social Security
The 2027 cost-of-living estimate isn't the only number moving. Full retirement age finishes its climb, the earnings test limit shifts, and the payroll tax cap rises too. Here's what to check once the real numbers land.
Medicare & Social Security
Senators say a recent Social Security email to retirees included misleading information. Learn the checks to run on any SSA email, text, or call before you click, pay, or reply.
Medicare & Social Security
CMS backed off a planned Medicare Advantage payment cut, so insurers are getting a bigger payment increase for 2027 than expected. Here's what that can mean for your premium and benefits this fall.
Medicare & Social Security
If your income and savings are low, Medicaid can pick up costs Medicare leaves behind. Few retirees know they qualify or how the two programs actually work together. Here's how to check and enroll.
Medicare & Social Security
Delaying Social Security to 70 grows your benefit by roughly 8% a year past full retirement age. Here's who that math actually favors, who it doesn't, and the records to pull before you decide.
Medicare & Social Security
Missing Medicare's fall open enrollment doesn't always mean waiting a full year. A qualifying life event can open a Special Enrollment Period, if you can prove it and act inside the window.
Medicare & Social Security
An early 2027 COLA estimate is already circulating, months before the real October announcement. Here's what the early number means for your budget now, and why it isn't final yet.
Medicare & Social Security
A bipartisan Senate framework and a reintroduced House bill both aim to shore up Social Security ahead of the 2032 shortfall. Neither changes your check yet. Here's how to track what could.
Medicare & Social Security
Reports this month describe a quiet Social Security policy change putting retirees at risk of missing benefits. Here's how to check your own account, regardless of which specific change is involved.
Medicare & Social Security
Headlines about a 2032 trust fund shortfall and a 24% benefit cut are technically accurate and widely misread. Here's what's already locked in, what Congress could still change, and how to build a buffer either way.
Medicare & Social Security
Medicare's GLP-1 Bridge program started July 1 and covers weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound for the first time, for $50 a month. Here's who actually qualifies and what to ask before you call your doctor.
Medicare & Social Security
Claim Social Security before your full retirement age while you're still earning a paycheck, and SSA can withhold part of your benefit. Here's how the earnings test works and how to plan around it.
Medicare & Social Security
If you missed Medicare Part B, the next move depends on whether you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period or must wait for General Enrollment. Start with coverage status, employer proof, and a clean list of questions.
Medicare & Social Security
A useful benefits call starts before you dial. Gather the right papers, write the question the right way, and keep notes that let you act on what the representative tells you.
Medicare & Social Security
A Social Security overpayment notice can push people into bad decisions fast. Read the letter closely, mark the deadline, gather your records, and call before you send money or ignore the notice.
Medicare & Social Security