The No Surprises Act, which was passed by Congress in 2020, was meant to help protect patients from surprise bills. Years later, it's caused unintended consequences that directly impact patients. Anna Schecter reports.
Page F112From§Eachthe noon edition — 7 October 2026
New York Post crowns Social Security's 2027 raise before Social Security announces what it is.
As it ran on the front
The promise was $5,000, conditional on Republicans holding Congress. That's a condition, not a payment, and it's already on the record from last week. This week's filings are the next lines in that ledger, not the promise's resolution.
On schedule, $90 went out to Medicare Part B beneficiaries. CBS's own headline this week asked the question the agency didn't answer out loud: why seniors got the money, and who missed out. The agency published a payment. CBS did the asking. Nobody has published the list of who's on the other side of that question.…
…(cont) The same week, a second filing landed beside it. The No Surprises Act, Congress's 2020 repair for shock medical bills, has produced a new financial problem patients are now carrying directly, CBS reports — unintended consequences of a fix for unintended consequences. A law built to stop one unexpected bill is generating another one.
The number seniors actually asked about — the 2027 cost-of-living raise — hasn't shipped. The Hill says the wait won't be long. Three days before today's filings, on October 4, the New York Post ran a headline anyway: "Social Security Check Hits $2K Milestone With Proposed 2027 COLA Bump." Proposed. Not announced. The raise got a headline before the agency that sets it set it.
Run the ledger back a month. On September 14, the Washington Examiner carried AARP's warning that the trust fund is six years from a forced 22 percent benefit cut if Congress doesn't act.
That's the account the $90 came out of, hon.
Line it up: the promise was $5,000. The payment was $90. The real number is due any day and hasn't arrived. The fix for surprise medical bills is now a source of surprise medical bills. And the account funding all of it is being called fraudulent by someone who used to sit two doors down from where the checks get signed. Every figure in this ledger is real. None of them is the figure that was promised.
“You get $90 and a press release while the number you actually need — your real raise — sits in a drawer until the government feels like opening it. That's not a glitch, that's the business model: small check now, big promise later, and later never quite arrives on schedule. Watch whose name is on the fund they're pulling the $90 from, because the guy calling it "fraud" used to have a badge to that building.”
“Look, $90 is real money, people should be grateful, and the COLA process takes time because it's tied to inflation data — that's just how the law works, we didn't invent the calendar. As for the fraud comment, that's one guy's opinion at a tech company, it's not administration policy — wait, he worked here, okay, it's not CURRENT administration policy. The $5,000 is still coming. I think. After the midterms. That's not a deflection, that's a timeline.”
Earlier in this story
- Trump pledges $5,000 for a Republican Congress, delivers $90 to seniors instead. By Ruth · the coffee break edition, 7 October 2026
- Republicans go quiet on the border promise they kept; the $90-for-$5,000 count continues. By Ruth · the sunrise edition, 7 October 2026
- Republicans' promised $5,000 arrives as $90, a $4,910 shortfall Treasury won't explain. By Ruth · the matinee edition, 6 October 2026
- Treasury mails the promised $5,000 in a $90 deposit, won't name the account that paid it. By Ruth · the noon edition, 6 October 2026
- GOP sells $90 as proof $5,000 is coming, then admits on record it won't buy the senior vote. By Ruth · the breakfast edition, 6 October 2026
- Called illegal for using tax dollars on his own ads, Trump keeps the ads, swaps the wallet. By Chip · the midnight edition, 6 October 2026
The receipts
It won't be long until we know how much benefits will increase by next year.
The 2025 reconciliation law cut SNAP by $187 billion - the largest cut in the program's history, feeding one in five American children Congressional Budget Office estimate, via CBPP SNAP tracker
Why you just got a $90 Social Security check — and who missed outMillions of seniors are getting $90 direct deposits from Social Security this week, prompting questions about the source of the money.
· Social Security Check Hits $2K Milestone With Proposed 2027 COLA Bump from the morgue, 4 Oct 2026
· AARP doesn’t want Social Security fixed — it wants you scared and donating from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026
· Top OpenAI Executive Labels Social Security a ‘Fraud’ That Must be Dismantled from the morgue, 26 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.