With fewer Part D plans and a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap, beneficiaries must rethink their Medicare drug coverage for 2025. Medicare expert Jae Oh shares what’s new and how to adjust.

Social Security's annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) are calculated based on how inflation changes in the third quarter, the three-month period from July through September. In this scenario, inflation is measured using a subset of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) known as the CPI-W.

Seniors awaiting bigger Social Security checks next year may be shocked to discover higher Medicare premiums will eat up a chunk of their cost-of-living adjustment.

With a little more than a month before the 2025 COLA kicks in, here's what you should know about the upcoming adjustment.

But a 2.5% COLA for 2025 stings because it's the smallest one to arrive in years. At the start of 2024, seniors on Social Security saw their benefits increase by 3.2%. And the year prior, Social Security recipients got a record-breaking 8.7% COLA. So a raise of just 2.5% seems awfully meager by comparison.

A 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment increase will mean an extra $50 a month for most Social Security and SSI recipients.