Bills affecting Senior (65+, Medicare/SS) in Rhode Island — 2026 session

Increases the federal adjusted gross income threshold for modification for taxable social security income. Amends references to federal adjusted gross income as pertains to modification of taxable retirement income from certain pension plans or annuities.

Allows a modification to federal adjusted gross income for all social security income for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2027.

Authorizes an increase in resource eligibility limits for persons with long-term-care needs who reside at home and requires semi-annual reports from Medicaid certified assisted living facilities and adult day service providers to the EOHHS.

Allows a modification to federal adjusted gross income of $25,000 of social security income for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2027.

Increases the yearly amount of money that retired teachers, who had been certified driver education teachers, could earn from fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) to twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000), without a reduction in their retirement benefits.

Allows teachers, state and municipal employees to retire when they have at least twenty-eight (28) years of active service and their retirement age, when combined with the number of their years of service reaches, the number eighty-five (85).

Changes the teacher and state employees' retirement benefit calculations' cutoff date from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2012, for all retirement members eligible to and who retire on or after the new July 1, 2012, cutoff date.

Allows teachers, state and municipal employees to retire upon the earlier of reaching age sixty (60) with thirty (30) years of service or the employee's retirement eligibility date under present state statutes.

Reinstates, for all teachers and state employees who retired after July 1, 2012, their annual cost of living adjustment for retirement plan year 2026.

Increases monthly minimum benefit for a spouse, domestic partner, former spouse.

Adds probation and parole officers to the list of state law enforcement professionals, for purpose of retirement on service allowance.

Provides that retirees in the state pension system receive cost of living adjustments compounded into the retiree’s total retirement benefits each year beginning January 1, 2026. This act would be prospective only.

Restore the rights of school administrators and staff members, who have retired to exceed the ninety-day (90) cap on post-retirement employment and work up to one hundred eighty (180) days during a school year.

Establishes a state-run prescription drug purchasing pool, available for participation by nonstate public employers, private employers, and health insurance carriers, to maximize the value of drug discounts available to participants.

Requires anyone engaged in the sale of goods or services, and who offers a discount to its customers’ for utilizing automatic payment systems, via ACH or EFT or similar payment systems, provide the same discount to any person who is sixty-five (65).

Requires a report to be produced that focuses on prescription drug prior authorizations by January 1, 2027.

Limits retired, part-time or adjunct instructors, hired by any state college, university, or state school, to teaching no more than two classes per semester.

Amends the current law on teacher’s creditable service so that a teacher who takes an unpaid parental or medical leave during the year would be given credit for a year of service for that school year if they served a minimum of 135 school days.

Allows a modification to federal adjusted gross income for all public pension benefits administered by the Employees Retirement System of Rhode Island.

Includes any costs paid by an enrollee or on behalf of the enrollee, by a third party when calculating an enrollee’s overall contribution to any out-of-pocket maximum or cost sharing requirement, under a health plan as of January 1, 2027.