ACA Federal Poverty Level Thresholds 2026

Nearly every ACA eligibility line — whether a household qualifies for Medicaid, for the enhanced cost-sharing silver plans, or for a premium tax credit at all — is defined as a percentage of the Federal Poverty Level for that household's size and state. This dataset publishes the full FPL table that governs 2026 coverage: all three HHS guideline jurisdictions (the 48 contiguous states and DC, Alaska, and Hawaii), household sizes 1 through 8, and every band from 100% to 400% of FPL, alongside the required-contribution schedule that sets the premium subsidy and the list of jurisdictions that have not adopted Medicaid expansion.

Which year's guidelines govern 2026 coverage

FPL bands by jurisdiction and household size

Each table below gives the 2025 HHS poverty guideline for that jurisdiction at household sizes 1 through 8, and that figure multiplied by each of the eight ACA program bands. What the bands mean:

• 100% FPL — Marketplace-subsidy income floor.
• 133% FPL — End of the flat 2.10% required-contribution band.
• 138% FPL — Medicaid-expansion income ceiling (adopting states).
• 150% FPL — Applicable-percentage band endpoint.
• 200% FPL — Applicable-percentage band endpoint.
• 250% FPL — Cost-sharing-reduction (enhanced-silver) ceiling.
• 300% FPL — Start of the top flat 9.96% required-contribution band.
• 400% FPL — Premium-subsidy cliff (2026 current-law schedule).

48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia

For households larger than 8, add $5,500 to the 100% FPL figure per additional member, then apply the same multiples.

Alaska

For households larger than 8, add $6,880 to the 100% FPL figure per additional member, then apply the same multiples. — This jurisdiction has its own higher guideline table; the QuantCalc ACA-bridge engine models the contiguous-48 table, so use these figures as reference data rather than as engine output.

Hawaii

For households larger than 8, add $6,330 to the 100% FPL figure per additional member, then apply the same multiples. — This jurisdiction has its own higher guideline table; the QuantCalc ACA-bridge engine models the contiguous-48 table, so use these figures as reference data rather than as engine output.

CC-BY-4.0 — free for any use including republication and journalism, with attribution to QuantCalc Research.

Applicable-percentage schedule (2026 current law)

The premium tax credit caps a household's benchmark-plan premium at a set share of its income — the applicable percentage — which rises with income as a share of FPL. Under current law for 2026, the ARPA/IRA enhanced schedule (0%–8.5%, no cliff) has lapsed, so the indexed statutory schedule below applies, with no premium subsidy above 400% FPL.

Below 133% FPL the cap is a flat 2.10%; at 133% it steps up to 3.14% and then ramps by band to 9.96% across 300%–400% FPL. Source: IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-25 §3.01.

Medicaid-expansion status

In the 41 expansion jurisdictions, adults below 138% FPL qualify for Medicaid rather than a marketplace subsidy. In the 10 non-expansion states below, an adult below 100% FPL who does not otherwise qualify for Medicaid falls into the coverage gap — too poor for a marketplace subsidy, ineligible for that state's Medicaid. The 10 non-expansion jurisdictions as of 2026:

Sources

Poverty guidelines (all three jurisdiction tables)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Secretary, “Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines”, 90 FR 5917 (Vol. 90, No. 11, January 17, 2025), pp. 5917-5918; FR Doc. 2025-01377; effective 2025-01-15. Notice PDF · ASPE poverty-guidelines index. Retrieved 2026-08-05.

Which year's guidelines apply

26 CFR §1.36B-1(h), Federal poverty line. Regulation text. Retrieved 2026-08-05.

Applicable-percentage table for 2026

Internal Revenue Service, Rev. Proc. 2025-25 §3.01 (indexing adjustments to the §36B applicable percentage table for taxable years beginning in 2026). Revenue procedure PDF. Retrieved 2026-08-05.

Statutory authority for the guidelines

Section 673(2) of the Community Services Block Grant Act, 42 U.S.C. 9902(2), which directs HHS to update the guidelines at least annually using the CPI-U.

Methodology

Changelog

• v2026.2 (2026-08-05) — enrichment. Added the Alaska and Hawaii guideline tables alongside the 48 contiguous states and DC (24 rows in all), expanded from four bands to eight (100/133/138/150/200/250/300/400% FPL), added primary sourcing to the HHS notice at 90 FR 5917 (Vol. 90, No. 11, January 17, 2025), pp. 5917-5918 with a machine cross-check against the engine mirror, added an explicit coverage-year vs guidelines-year section citing 26 CFR §1.36B-1(h), and cross-linked the ACA Subsidy Calculator and the 20261 subsidy page.
• v2026.1 (2026-07-22) — initial release. Contiguous 48 states and DC only, household sizes 1–8, four MAGI thresholds, the current-law 2026 applicable-percentage schedule, and the 10-state non-expansion list, generated from the frozen ACA-bridge engine constants.

Dataset license: CC-BY-4.0. QuantCalc is an independent retirement-planning research project. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any government agency, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or the IRS. Not financial, tax, or legal advice.

@misc{quantcalc2026acafederalpovertylevelthresholds2026,
  title  = {ACA Federal Poverty Level Thresholds 2026},
  author = {{QuantCalc Research}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://quantcalc.app/data/aca-fpl-2026/},
  note   = {Accessed <date>}
}