Medicare Open Enrollment for 2027 coverage opened on October 15, 2026, and closes on December 7, 2026, the window the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on September 28, 2026, alongside a projection that the weighted average Medicare Advantage premium will fall from $14.37 a month in 2026 to $12.00 in 2027. The premium is the small number; the large one is the plan's maximum out-of-pocket amount, or MOOP, and CMS has capped it for 2027 at $9,850 for in-network care and $14,800 for in-network and out-of-network care combined. A plan with drug coverage adds a separate Part D limit of $2,400, so the $9,850 figure now circulating as the 2027 Medicare Advantage limit is one of three ceilings, and for a PPO member who sees out-of-network doctors it is not the one that ends the year's spending. Both MOOP figures are maximums, not the amount on a given plan. Plans pick a number at or below them in one of three tiers, set by a CMS memo dated April 22, 2026, u...
On October 19, 2026, news reports said the Education Department and the Treasury were preparing to restart involuntary collections on defaulted federal student loans as soon as November, with private collection agencies doing part of the work, with no confirmation from either department. If collections resume, a borrower in default can lose part of each paycheck to administrative wage garnishment and part of each Social Security payment to a Treasury offset, and both tools are usually summed up with the same number, 15 percent. The 15 percent is a ceiling in both, but each tool has its own floor underneath it, $750 a month for Social Security and 30 times the federal minimum wage, or $217.50 a week, for pay, and for lower incomes the floor sets the amount. The deadlines also differ. A wage garnishment notice gives 30 days to ask for a hearing that holds the order back; a notice of tax refund offset gives 65 days to ask for a review. A borrower who receives both in the same week and p...