Medicare Open Enrollment: Five Things You Need to Do

medicare%2050th%20logoRoutines help keep us focused, organized, and even healthy. However, if your health routine doesn’t include preparing for Medicare’s Open Enrollment, now’s the time to kick-start a new healthy habit.

If you have a Medicare health or prescription drug plan, you should review and compare coverage options. The Open Enrollment runs through December 7 and is the time you can make changes to your plan. Even if you’re happy with your current coverage, you might find a better fit for your budget or your health needs. If you miss an Open Enrollment deadline, you’ll most likely have to wait a full year before you can change your plan.

Here are five things every Medicare beneficiary can do to get in the Medicare Open Enrollment routine.

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Thankful for Access to Healthcare

Thankful-for-Access-to-Healthcare

Thanksgiving is the time we reflect on what we’re thankful for. As it happens, this is also open enrollment season for the Affordable Care Act. Embracing the spirit of both events, I’m thankful for access to quality, affordable healthcare and for my son’s health. Continue reading

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Social Security Helps Children Struck by Cancer and Other Illnesses

little girl smiling, holding teddy bearAbout 13,000 children receive cancer diagnoses each year. And, while every case isn’t fatal, about a quarter of children diagnosed with cancer won’t survive. Those who do survive may suffer with the disease for many years.

While Social Security can’t help with a cure, we can offer financial support to children with cancer or any other severe disability. Continue reading

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Honoring and Supporting Caregivers in the Month of November

A happy senior African American couple outside a car. The man is sitting in a wheelchair and his wife is standing beside him with her arm around his shoulder.

I was supporting a friend — just doing my thing and someone told me I was a “C-A-R-E-G-I-V-E-R”.  So I was a caregiver this whole time without even realizing it and, on top of that, without realizing the challenges that people deal with when they’re really sick. Now, I’m ready to do something about this … — Marilyn Continue reading

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Five Things You Can Do Online with Social Security

5 things you can do onlineYou want to enjoy the fall weather, and Social Security’s online services free up your time to lounge in a hammock in your backyard or take your dog on a long walk. You can safely and conveniently conduct most of your business with us anytime, anywhere. There’s no need to visit a local Social Security office. Continue reading

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A Call to Action during the ACA Women’s Week of Action

A group of three happy, senior African American women standing together at the park. Two of them are looking at the camera and laughing. The main focus is on the woman in the middle.

Women everywhere are living longer and working harder. Along with those realities comes a greater need to manage risks related to our health and financial futures. Both the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) and Social Security can help women manage those risks. During this week’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) Women’s Week of Action—November 9-13—we call each of you, women everywhere, to action. Continue reading

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Helping America Plan for Retirement

CFPBOne of Social Security’s top priorities is helping you prepare for retirement. Planning your retirement early can help ensure secure and comfortable post-retirement years — yet few Americans do it. Both public policymakers and private firms have worked to engage individuals to plan in the decades before their retirement, with mixed success. Continue reading

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You Can Help Shape Our Disability Policy

person holding puzzle piece

Social Security needs your help. We are asking for responses to an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on how we should modernize our vocational rules, which we first published in 1978. These are the rules our disability decision makers use to decide whether an adult with a severe disabling condition can do any job in the national economy. Continue reading

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