Category: Retirement Matters

By Joanne Bump 2026 Social Security (SS) Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) — is projected at 2.7 percent by an early estimate from the Senior Citizens League. The estimate is based on inflation data and would provide an average monthly increase of about $54. This rise is in keeping with the 2.5 percent COLA provided… Read more

By Joanne Bump Historic Rollback in Federal Health Insurance Funding — The administration supported significant cuts to health insurance to fund the renewal of the 2017 tax cuts for the super wealthy. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is a federal budget reconciliation legislation that has the biggest rollback in federal support for health… Read more

By Joanne Bump Federal Safety Net Cuts — The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was enacted on July 4, 2025.  This law will make the largest cuts in history to Medicaid.  Medicaid provides health insurance to one in five Americans, usually for low-income and disabled persons.  In addition, significant cuts were made to the… Read more

By Joanne Bump The U.S. House passed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” with many changes that impact retirees.  The bill is before the U.S. Senate but it’s losing the momentum to pass it by the July 4 deadline.  The bill includes language to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion, extending the federal government’s authority… Read more

Medicaid and You Who Is Covered? – Many of usthink of Medicaid as the program that pays for the health care for low-income individuals.  It is the largest provider of health insurance in the U.S., covering one in five Americans and 2.6 million Michigan residents.  According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a majority of… Read more

By Joanne Bump U.S. Household Net Worth — The U.S Household Net Worth (or assets less liabilities) reached a new peak in 2024 as the unemployment rate and household debt were near record lows. This gain was not shared equally within the U.S. economy, due to the wealth gap, as reported by the New York Times. In… Read more

By Joanne Bump Making Sense of Federal Uncertainty — Federal employees have been fired to cut waste and fraud. Consider the advice of Deep Throat, a character in the movie “All the President’s Men,” who said, “Follow the money.” The cost of all federal workers is about 5 percent of total federal spending. The federal administrative… Read more

By Joanne Bump 50th Anniversary of State of Michigan, Deferred Compensation Plan (DC) — You may have heard the phrase that — “We stand on the shoulders of those that came before us.” This is never so true as today, as we approach the State of Michigan’s 50th anniversary of the DC. SERA was made aware… Read more

By Joanne Bump Michigan Sues Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) — On October 24, 2024, Michigan Attorney General (AG) Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit against OptumRx and ExpressScripts PBMs for their role in the Opioid Epidemic in Michigan. In 2022, Michigan reported 2,998 overdose-related deaths. This followed a pattern of increased deaths between 2000 and 2020, as… Read more

The 2025 Social Security (SS) Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) — The SS COLA is estimated to increase by 2.5 percent, according to the nonprofit Senior Citizens League. COLA is tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). It is based on average prices of household items like food, housing,… Read more