Medicaid Income Limits by State 2026: The 138% FPL Table

If you searched for a Medicaid income table for 2026, here it is — with one honest warning first. The federal government publishes a percentage (138% of the poverty level for adults in expansion states), not a dollar table. Every dollar figure below is calculated from the official 2026 poverty guidelines, and we show the math so you can check it yourself. What actually differs by state is not the numbers in this table — it is whether the adult group exists in your state at all, and that is the second half of this guide.

This guide is about the income table. For who qualifies through every other pathway and how to file the application itself, see our main Medicaid eligibility and application guide.

Step 1: The Official 2026 Federal Poverty Guidelines

Everything starts from this table, published by HHS in January 2026 (ASPE, 2026 poverty guidelines) for the 48 contiguous states and D.C.:

Household size	2026 poverty guideline (yearly)
1	$15,960
2	$21,640
3	$27,320
4	$33,000
5	$38,680
6	$44,360
7	$50,040
8	$55,720
Each additional person	+$5,680

Alaska and Hawaii use separate, higher guidelines — if you live there, your state’s numbers are above these, so do not rule yourself out from this table.

Step 2: The 138% Table for Expansion-State Adults

In states that adopted Medicaid expansion, adults age 19–64 qualify on income alone at up to 138% of the poverty level. Here is that table for 2026. These figures are our calculation, not a government publication: each yearly figure is the poverty guideline above multiplied by 1.38, rounded to the nearest dollar, and each monthly figure is that yearly result divided by 12, rounded to the nearest dollar. Example for one person: $15,960 × 1.38 = $22,024.80 → $22,025 a year → about $1,835 a month.

Household size	138% of FPL — yearly	138% of FPL — monthly
1	$22,025	$1,835
2	$29,863	$2,489
3	$37,702	$3,142
4	$45,540	$3,795
5	$53,378	$4,448
6	$61,217	$5,101
7	$69,055	$5,755
8	$76,894	$6,408
Each additional person	+$7,838	+$653

Three things to keep in mind before you measure yourself against it:

• It is a close guide, not your state’s exact cutoff. States adopt the new year’s guidelines on their own schedules, HealthCare.gov notes that a few states use a different income limit than 138%, and income is counted under MAGI rules that include specific deductions. Your state gives the binding answer when you apply.
• It only covers the adult expansion group (age 19–64, not pregnant, not on Medicare). Children, pregnant women, people 65 or older, and people with disabilities go through other pathways — usually with higher limits or different tests entirely.
• Income means household MAGI, not just your paycheck. There is no asset or savings test for this group.

Why 133% in the Law Becomes 138% in Practice

This is the arithmetic almost every income-table article skips, and it comes straight from the regulations.

The rule that creates the adult group, 42 CFR 435.119, says states must cover people age 19–64 who “have household income that is at or below 133 percent FPL for the applicable family size.”

Then the income-counting rule, 42 CFR 435.603(d)(4), adds a built-in deduction: “in determining the eligibility of an individual using MAGI-based income, a state must subtract an amount equivalent to 5 percentage points of the Federal poverty level for the applicable family size.”

133 + 5 = 138. HealthCare.gov compresses the whole thing into one parenthesis: “If your household income is below 133% of the federal poverty level (FPL), you qualify. (Because of the way this is calculated, it turns out to be 138% of the federal poverty level.)”

Which States Use This Table — and Why We Don’t Print a List

The honest answer: we could not verify a current, complete state list on an official federal page, so we are not going to print one.

Here is what the official sources actually say:

• HealthCare.gov declines to count: “Some states have expanded their Medicaid programs to cover all people with household incomes below a certain level. Others haven’t.”
• MACPAC, the congressional advisory commission on Medicaid, gives the most recent count we could read on a .gov page: “As of March 2023, 40 states and the District of Columbia have chosen to adopt the adult expansion.” That count is from 2023 — which leaves roughly ten states that had not adopted it as of that date, and the line-up can change.

A stale list presented as current is worse than no list. So do the one-minute check instead: use the state checker on HealthCare.gov’s expansion page, or ask your state Medicaid agency directly whether adults qualify on income alone.

If Your State Did Not Expand

The 138% table above simply does not apply to you — but Medicaid in your state did not disappear. It covers the categorical groups it always covered, per USA.gov: children, pregnant women, people age 65 or over, people with disabilities, and some parents at state-set income levels.

HealthCare.gov is unusually blunt about the hole this leaves: adults below the poverty level who do not fit a category “fall into a gap” — earning too much for their state’s Medicaid but too little for Marketplace savings. Its own advice, quoted from the expansion page: “Even if your state hasn’t expanded Medicaid and it looks like your income is below the level to qualify for financial help with a Marketplace plan, you should fill out a Marketplace application.” A full application can surface a pathway you did not know you fit — particularly if you are pregnant, have children, or have a disability.

While coverage is unresolved, care still exists: your children may qualify for CHIP even when you qualify for nothing, and community health centers treat you on a sliding fee scale with or without insurance.

New Rule to Know About: Community Engagement Starts in 2027

This is the part you will not find in older income-table articles, because it entered the regulations in June 2026 — we read it in the current text of the CFR.

42 CFR 435.119(d), added by a rule published at 91 FR 33469 on June 3, 2026, now provides that “the 50 States and the District of Columbia must provide that eligibility under this section is subject to the community engagement requirement described at §§ 435.550 through 435.563.”

The timing rule, 42 CFR 435.559, makes compliance a condition of eligibility “for medical assistance furnished on or after January 1, 2027” — and a state “may elect to implement” it earlier. For people already enrolled, the state verifies compliance “at the applicable individual’s first renewal” after its implementation date.

What this means for you in practice, without guessing at details the rule leaves to states: if you are (or become) an expansion-group adult, expect your state to ask you to demonstrate community engagement — or an exemption — starting with renewals in 2027, possibly sooner. The definitions of who counts, what activities qualify, and who is exempt sit in §§ 435.550–435.563 and in your state’s implementation. Open every letter from your Medicaid agency and answer renewal notices on time — under this rule, paperwork missed is coverage lost.

How to Apply

Applying is free, there is no enrollment window, and one application checks your whole household for both Medicaid and CHIP. The two routes — through your state agency or through HealthCare.gov — plus the documents to have ready, the no-fee scam warning, and what happens after you file are all in our main guide: Medicaid Income Limits 2026: Who Qualifies & How to Apply.

If you are sorting out several benefits at once — food, child care, housing — our guide to government help for single mothers maps the programs by situation, and dialing 211 reaches local application help.

How We Checked This

Every figure and quotation above was read at its source on September 12, 2026.

What we opened. The 2026 poverty guidelines on HHS ASPE’s site for the base table (all eight household sizes and the $5,680 add-on — published in the Federal Register on January 15, 2026); the current text of 42 CFR 435.119, 435.603, and 435.559 through the eCFR (the official, continuously updated Code of Federal Regulations); HealthCare.gov’s Medicaid expansion page for the 138% wording, the coverage-gap description, and the state checker; MACPAC’s Medicaid expansion page for the state count; and USA.gov’s Medicaid page for the categorical groups.

The math, disclosed. The 138% table is ours: poverty guideline × 1.38, rounded to the nearest dollar; monthly = the unrounded yearly result ÷ 12, rounded to the nearest dollar. The government publishes the percentage and the poverty guidelines; it does not publish this dollar table.

Two things we found only in the primary sources. First, the exact mechanism of “138%”: the statute-level figure in 42 CFR 435.119 is 133%, and the extra 5 points come from a mandatory disregard buried in the MAGI rule at 42 CFR 435.603(d)(4) — most articles state 138% without ever saying why. Second, the community engagement requirement: the amendment note on 42 CFR 435.119 itself (91 FR 33469, June 3, 2026) and the January 1, 2027 effective date in 42 CFR 435.559 — a change that was in force in the regulations on the day we wrote this and absent from nearly every income-limit page we have seen.

What we left out, and why. No state-by-state list of expansion status: the only federal count we could read (MACPAC) is dated March 2023, and HealthCare.gov itself refuses to give a number, so we point you to its live checker instead of printing a list we cannot stand behind. No Alaska or Hawaii dollar figures: their separate guidelines were not in the text we were able to verify today, so we say only what ASPE says — that they are higher. No non-expansion state income limits for parents: those are set state by state and there is no single federal table to quote.

Income limits shown are for 2026 in the 48 contiguous states and D.C., for the adult expansion group only. Your state’s exact limits, covered groups, and adoption timing may differ — the state agency’s answer on your own application is the one that counts.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Last updated: September 12, 2026.