Articles & guides
Plain-English guides to tax, ACA, life insurance, Medicare, notary services — and the financial questions South Florida families actually ask.
Insurers are cutting Medicare Advantage plans again for 2027, and the notices land in South Florida mailboxes by September 30. Here is how to read the letter, the four enrollment windows that open for you, and the one Medigap right that quietly expires 63 days after your coverage ends.
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Two separate programs — Extra Help and the Medicare Savings Programs — can pay your Part B premium, wipe out your Part D deductible and cut your drug copays to a few dollars a prescription. Here are the 2026 income and resource limits, what each one actually pays, the monthly enrollment window most people never hear about, and how to apply in Florida before Annual Enrollment opens on October 15.
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Every Medicare Advantage and Part D plan has to put one document in your hands before the end of September: the Annual Notice of Change. It is the only place your plan tells you, in advance and in writing, what your premium, your drug tiers and your doctor network will look like in January. Most people throw it away. Here is what is inside it, the five things worth checking, and the calendar that follows from it.
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Social Security announced a 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 on October 14, payable with the January payment. Every “your check goes up by this much” headline since then has been arithmetic done with half the numbers, because the Part B premium that comes out of the same payment has not been announced and will not be until around mid-November. Here is where 3.6 percent comes from, what it is worth in dollars, which Medicare costs are rising four times faster, and who the hold-harmless rule does not actually protect.
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Medicare marketing for next year’s plans was allowed to begin on October 1, Annual Enrollment opened on October 15, and complaints about Medicare scam calls to Better Business Bureaus are up 40 percent year over year. Some of the calls you are getting are legitimate. A good number are not, and the federal rules are clearer than most people realize about which is which. Here is what an agent may lawfully do, how your number probably got out, and the two minutes of checking that settles it.
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CMS put the 2027 Medicare star ratings on the Plan Finder on October 8, a week before Annual Enrollment opens. Fewer contracts earned four or more stars than last year — 37 percent against 44 — and yet more people are enrolled in one. Both things are true, and neither means quite what the number beside your plan suggests. Here is what changed, what a star actually measures, and the one thing being widely reported that is not correct.
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CMS estimates the average stand-alone Medicare drug plan premium will rise from about $35 to $36 for 2027. That single number hides the real story: there is no longer a zero-premium drug plan for anyone without Extra Help, about four million people who paid nothing in 2026 now pay something, and two of the largest plans in the country rise by $50 or more a month in most states. Here is how to find out which group you are in before December 7.
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If you have Medicare and Florida Medicaid, you may be in a plan called a D-SNP. A federal rule that starts on January 1, 2027 changes who those plans may newly enroll: in some cases, only people who also use that same company for their Medicaid. Existing members are protected until 2030. Here is how to tell whether any of it reaches you, and what to check during this Annual Enrollment.
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From now until December the television, the mailbox and the phone will all tell you about dental, vision, hearing and a card loaded with money. The benefits are real. They are also capped, networked, limited by frequency, different in every plan, and in the case of the largest advertised allowances, restricted to people with qualifying chronic conditions. Here is how to work out what a given benefit is actually worth to you, before it becomes the reason you chose a plan.
Read articleJCKC Financial Services is an independent brokerage offering Medicare, ACA / Obamacare health insurance, life insurance, tax preparation, and Florida notary services to families across Broward County.
We serve clients in English, French, Haitian Creole, and Spanish (se habla español). You can be helped in the language you are most comfortable with, in person or online.
Our office is at 3692 W. Oakland Park Blvd., Lauderdale Lakes, FL 33311. We are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and Saturday by appointment. Call (954) 825-9923.
