Help Paying Medical Copays 2026: HealthWell & How to Apply

Most people who go looking for copay help assume the problem will be their income. With the HealthWell Foundation, it usually is not. On September 5, 2026, we counted the disease funds on HealthWell’s own list: 93 funds total — 31 open, 62 closed. The question that decides your application is not what you earn. It is whether the fund for your specific disease has money in it this week.

That is a frustrating answer, but it is a useful one, because it tells you exactly where to aim: find your fund, check its status today, and if it is closed, get on the alert list instead of giving up.

Note: the HealthWell Foundation is a nonprofit charity, not a government program. It describes itself as a “501(c)(3) independent non-profit organization providing financial assistance to adults and children to cover the cost of prescription drug coinsurance, copayments, deductibles, health insurance premiums and other selected out-of-pocket health care costs,” per healthwellfoundation.org. Its EIN is 20-0413676. Government programs that lower the same costs are covered further down.

What a HealthWell Grant Actually Pays For

HealthWell’s tagline is “When health insurance is not enough.” That is literal. The money does not go to you as income — it goes toward the costs your insurance leaves on your side of the line:

• Prescription drug copays and coinsurance
• Health insurance premiums (some funds are premium-only, some copay-only, some both)
• Deductibles
• Other out-of-pocket costs — HealthWell lists “supplies, supplements, surgeries and more,” per healthwellfoundation.org

Most funds pay through a pharmacy card, so the discount applies at the counter rather than as a reimbursement you wait for. Where reimbursement applies, you submit claims during your grant cycle.

The Four Things You Need to Qualify

HealthWell lists its eligibility requirements plainly. All four have to be true at the same time, per healthwellfoundation.org:

1. Your disease has a HealthWell fund — and it is open. This is the gate that stops most people. See the section below.
2. You have insurance. “Some form of health insurance — such as private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or Tricare.” HealthWell does not serve uninsured patients.
3. Your specific medication is on the fund’s covered list. Each fund page publishes a “Treatments Covered” list by drug name.
4. Your household income is under the fund’s limit. HealthWell “assists individuals with incomes up to 300-500% of the Federal Poverty Level,” and adds that it “also considers the number in a household and cost of living in a particular city or state.”

You must also be receiving treatment in the United States.

What 300–500% of poverty means in dollars

Each fund states its own limit on its own page. HealthWell’s patient page describes the range as 300 to 500 percent — but every open fund we checked on September 5, 2026 (twenty of them, sampled across the list) published the same figure: 500% of the Federal Poverty Level. Treat 500% as the number to check against, and read your fund’s page rather than assuming the low end applies to you. Using the 2026 HHS poverty guidelines for the 48 contiguous states and DC ($15,960 for a household of 1 and $33,000 for a household of 4, per aspe.hhs.gov), the ceilings work out roughly like this:

Household size	300% of poverty	500% of poverty
1 person	$47,880	$79,800
2 people	$64,920	$108,200
3 people	$81,960	$136,600
4 people	$99,000	$165,000

These are calculated from the published 2026 guidelines, and Alaska and Hawaii have higher figures. The point of the table is not the exact cent — it is that a working household earning well into the middle class can qualify here. People rule themselves out of copay assistance all the time because they assume it is only for very low incomes. At 500% of poverty, a family of four is looking at a ceiling around $165,000. Check the number on your fund’s page before you decide you earn too much.

How Much You Can Get

Every fund page publishes a Maximum Award Level in dollars. Across the 31 funds open on September 5, 2026, those maximums ranged from $1,000 to $15,000 for a 12-month cycle:

Fund (examples from the open list)	Maximum award
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis	$15,000
Bronchiectasis	$12,000
Acute Myeloid Leukemia	$10,000
Multiple Myeloma – Medicare Access	$8,000
Pulmonary Hypertension – Medicare Access	$6,500
Ovarian Cancer – Medicare Access	$3,500
Cancer Home Care Services	$2,000
Inborn Metabolic or Genetic Bile Acid Deficiency (Vitamins and Supplements)	$1,000

Most open funds sat between $4,000 and $10,000. Treat the maximum as a ceiling you draw against over the year, not a lump sum.

HealthWell Disease Funds: What’s Open Now

HealthWell sorts every disease fund into one of three states, per healthwellfoundation.org:

• Open — accepting new applications right now.
• Re-enrollment — open only to people who have had and used a HealthWell grant before.
• Closed — “temporarily closed to new patients due to lack of sufficient funding.”

When we counted the list on September 5, 2026, it held 93 funds: 31 open and 62 closed. That ratio is the honest headline of this guide. Roughly two out of three disease funds were not taking new patients that day — not because of anything about the applicants, but because donations for those specific diseases had run dry.

Three things follow from that:

• Closed is not forever. HealthWell says replenished funds “reopen as quickly as possible.” Funds cycle open and shut through the year.
• Timing is the skill. Every fund page has a Fund Alerts sign-up for “email or text/call alerts to receive instant notifications.” Sign up the day you find your fund closed. That is the single most useful thing you can do here.
• An existing grant survives a closure. If you already have a grant, HealthWell states it “will remain active for the entire 12 month grant cycle or until you have exhausted your allocated grant amount, whichever comes first.” A fund closing does not cancel your current grant — but it does mean you cannot renew until it reopens.

How to Apply for a HealthWell Grant

1. Find your disease fund. Go to the disease funds list and look up your condition. Note the status next to it.
2. If it is closed, sign up for that fund’s alerts first — email or text — then work the alternatives below while you wait.
3. If it is open, read the fund page carefully. Check three things: the Maximum Award Level, the Household Income Limit (every open fund we checked listed 500% of poverty, but read yours), and whether your exact medication appears on the Treatments Covered list. Also check the Assistance Type — some funds cover only prescription copays, some only premiums.
4. Gather what the application asks for. Your contact and insurance information, your prescriber’s first and last name, your disease and treatment, and which kind of help you need (copay or premium). Note that HealthWell says you “will be asked to provide a Social Security Number in order to create a grant.”
5. Apply. Online through HealthWell’s application, or by phone at (800) 675-8416, Monday–Friday, 9 am to 5 pm Eastern. Your provider’s office or your pharmacy can also apply on your behalf through HealthWell’s provider and pharmacy portals — worth asking, because they already have most of the information.
6. Use it, then reapply. A grant runs a rolling 12 months, “after which you can reapply if needed.”

Spanish speakers: HealthWell publishes a Spanish page at healthwellfoundation.org/en-espanol with a Spanish-language application route.

If Your Fund Is Closed — What to Try Instead

HealthWell’s own first piece of advice is worth taking seriously: “Contact the company that makes your medication. Manufacturers have generous assistance programs,” per healthwellfoundation.org. Drug manufacturer patient assistance programs are separate money, they are not tied to HealthWell’s fund balances, and they are free to apply to.

Then work down this list:

• NeedyMeds indexes patient assistance programs by drug name, plus diagnosis-based charities and a free discount card.
• Medicare Part D Extra Help through the Social Security Administration lowers Part D deductibles and copays for people with limited income and resources — apply at ssa.gov or call 1-800-772-1213.
• Medicaid covers prescriptions for people who qualify, and it is one of the insurance types HealthWell accepts.
• Community health centers charge on a sliding scale by family size and income, and many run discounted pharmacies.
• CHIP covers children’s prescriptions when a family earns too much for Medicaid.
• Other disease-specific charities. HealthWell is one of several copay foundations; a closed fund at one may be open at another for the same diagnosis.

No Fees, Ever — and How to Spot the Fakes

HealthWell never charges you to apply. There is no application fee, no processing fee, and no service that needs to be paid to file on your behalf. If a company offers to “get you approved” for copay assistance for a fee, that fee is buying you nothing you cannot do yourself in twenty minutes.

Two habits protect you:

• Start at the official site. Type healthwellfoundation.org directly rather than following a search ad or a link in an unsolicited message.
• Be careful with the Social Security number. HealthWell does ask for one to create a grant — but only inside its own application, its own phone line at (800) 675-8416, or a portal your provider or pharmacy uses. Never give it to someone who called you first.

Other Help While You Sort This Out

A medical bill you cannot cover is rarely the only bill under strain:

• One call for everything. 211 connects you to local help with medical bills, utilities, food, and rent.
• Groceries. SNAP (food stamps) frees up cash you are currently spending on food.
• Energy bills. LIHEAP helps with heating and cooling costs, and never charges a fee.
• Phone and internet. Lifeline takes up to $9.25 a month off a qualifying bill.

How We Checked This

We did not take these numbers from a summary. On September 5, 2026 we opened HealthWell’s own disease funds list, counted every entry by status, and then opened twenty individual fund pages to read their Maximum Award Level and Household Income Limit straight off the page.

What that turned up:

• The list is still 93 funds — but the mix moved. On August 4 it was 32 open and 61 closed. On September 5 it was 31 open and 62 closed. One fund’s worth of change in a month, in the wrong direction, is exactly why we date the count instead of printing it as a standing fact.
• The award ceilings did not move. Every figure in the table above — $15,000 for ALS, $12,000 for Bronchiectasis, $10,000 for Acute Myeloid Leukemia, down to $1,000 for the bile acid deficiency vitamins fund — read the same on September 5 as it did on August 4.
• The income limit is the correction worth making. The commonly repeated version of HealthWell’s rule is “300 to 500% of poverty,” which is what its patient page says, and people read the 300% end and rule themselves out. Every one of the twenty fund pages we opened — ALS, Bronchiectasis, AML, Multiple Myeloma, Pulmonary Hypertension, Ovarian Cancer, Blepharitis, Porphyrias, Mantle Cell Lymphoma, Amyloidosis and the rest — listed 500%. We found no fund below it. That does not prove none exists, but it does mean the low end is the wrong number to plan around.
• The Social Security number question has an odd home. HealthWell’s patient page lists what the application needs and does not mention an SSN. The line “you will be asked to provide a Social Security Number in order to create a grant. This information is gathered to eliminate duplicate applications and is kept secure and confidential” appears on the individual fund pages instead. It is real and it is HealthWell’s own text — it is just not where most people would look for it.
• “Re-enrollment” is a status with nothing in it right now. The page still explains the category, but on September 5 no fund carried that label. Every fund was Open or Closed.

Fund status is the one thing in this guide that can change between us publishing and you reading. The page is the authority, not us — if your fund shows a different status today, that is the true answer. If something else here contradicts what HealthWell tells you, tell us and we will re-check it.

The HealthWell Foundation is a nonprofit charity, not a government program. Fund statuses change frequently — the counts above reflect the disease funds list as published on September 5, 2026, and your fund’s status today is whatever its own page says. Award levels, income limits, and covered treatments are set fund by fund and were verified on the official HealthWell Foundation website as of September 5, 2026.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice.