#medicare

#medicare

Meta made millions off of scam ads specifically targeting seniors, according to a new report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The tech watchdog found that Meta was failing to curb malicious Medicare-related advertisements, which earned the platform $14.3 million in ad revenue in 2025. Such advertisements included false promises of "free benefits" for Medicare recipients, AI-generated celebrity deepfakes, and fake enrollment deadlines. They predominantly targeted Facebook users aged 65 or older, primarily in Texas and Florida.

The 2026 Medicare Part B premium landed at $202.90 per month, up from $185.00 in 2025, a 9.7% increase that landed right on top of a 2.8% Social Security cost-of-living adjustment.

Medical inflation runs on its own clock, and the coverage decisions you make at 65 determine whether a serious illness costs you a manageable sum or a devastating one. Healthcare is the single most unpredictable variable in retirement planning because it combines three separate uncertainties: how fast costs will rise, how much care you will need, and which coverage structure you choose.

When Sarah finally enrolled at 65, she discovered something that made her stomach drop: because she'd missed her Initial Enrollment Period by a few months, she'd be paying an extra $67 per month in Part B penalties. That's over $800 annually. Forever. For a lawyer who'd spent her career mastering complex legal concepts and advising clients on intricate matters, this felt particularly frustrating. I see variations of this story more often than I'd like to admit.

Lee, a software engineer who previously worked at Google and Uber, recognized those struggles for the first time a few years ago, when her grandmother died after a long battle with dementia. Lee's aunt, who she described as an "alpha daughter," had been her grandmother's primary caretaker for years. "I just, from the sidelines, thought she was a complete superhero. She was an architect, she was raising children, she was taking care of my grandmother," Lee said. "But it was at the memorial service that I realized she actually just fully broke during that whole journey."

"We believe these deals, within two years based on our health improvements, we will be budget neutral,"

On Tuesday morning in Searsport, Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins woke up and decided to do something she very, very rarely does: hold a public press event in her state. The event was in celebration of the completion of two years of construction and renovation on the town's Main Street-though very few people were feeling celebratory. Over 200 protesters showed up to the ribbon-cutting ceremony to express their dismay at the senator, her voting record, and the Trump administration at large.

When that broken promise is 50 years old and the consequences are deep and far-reaching, we are talking about a whole different level of suffering.

Healthcare spending in the US reached $5.1 trillion in 2024, accounting for 18.2% of GDP, and is projected to rise to $7.2 trillion by 2031.