Medicaid Income Limits by State: 2026 Eligibility Chart

Short answer: there is no single national Medicaid income limit. Eligibility is set as a percentage of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), and that percentage — and even the poverty level itself — depends on your state, your household size, and whether you’re applying as an adult, a child, a pregnant person, or someone who is aged or disabled. In the 40 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, most adults qualify with household income up to 138% of the FPL. In the 10 states that haven’t expanded, the limits for adults are far lower, and some working parents fall into a coverage gap.

Why Medicaid limits aren’t one number

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program. Washington sets the floor and pays a large share of the cost, but each state administers its own program, can set its own income cutoffs above the federal minimum, and decides whether to accept the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. That’s why a single mother earning $30,000 a year might qualify for full Medicaid coverage in Ohio and get nothing but a CHIP plan for her kids in Texas, according to Medicaid.gov.

Most non-elderly applicants are screened using Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) — essentially your household’s taxable income plus a few add-backs, compared against the FPL for your household size. There’s no asset test for MAGI Medicaid. Aged, blind, and disabled applicants, and anyone seeking nursing-home or long-term-care coverage, are screened under older rules that do count assets and are pegged to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) limits rather than straight FPL percentages.

The 2026 poverty guidelines

The Department of Health and Human Services publishes new Federal Poverty Guidelines every January, and Medicaid programs update their income cutoffs after that release — typically within the first quarter of the year. HHS published the 2026 guidelines in the Federal Register on January 15, 2026, reflecting the 2.63% increase in the CPI-U between 2024 and 2025. Below are the 2026 guidelines for the 48 contiguous states and D.C. Check the HHS ASPE poverty guidelines page to confirm which guideline year your state has implemented.

Alaska and Hawaii use higher baseline guidelines, so their Medicaid income limits are correspondingly higher — under the 2026 guidelines Alaska starts at $19,950 for one person and adds $7,100 per additional person, and Hawaii starts at $18,360 and adds $6,530, per HHS’s published tables. Always confirm your state’s current figures on your state Medicaid agency’s website or through Medicaid.gov’s eligibility pages.

Expansion states vs. non-expansion states

Whether your state expanded Medicaid is the single biggest factor for working-age adults without children.

Expansion states (as of 2026): 40 states plus D.C., including California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, and Louisiana. Adults ages 19–64 qualify with household income up to 138% of the FPL — for a single person, $22,025 a year in 2026; for a family of four, $45,540.

Non-expansion states (as of 2026): Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. These states have not adopted the ACA expansion, so Medicaid for adults is limited mostly to parents and caretakers of minor children, plus pregnant people and people with disabilities. Income limits for parents in these states are often shockingly low — the median limit for parents in non-expansion states is 40% of the FPL, and Texas’s 15% is the lowest in the nation — and, apart from Wisconsin and Georgia, which cover some adults through waivers, adults without dependent children generally can’t qualify for Medicaid at all, regardless of how little they earn. This is the root of the “coverage gap”: people who earn too much for Medicaid but too little (under 100% FPL) to qualify for subsidized marketplace insurance.

Note that this table shows patterns, not guarantees — exact percentages are set state by state and change over time. Confirm your state’s current thresholds through its Medicaid or CHIP agency page.

Children, pregnant people, and CHIP

Even in non-expansion states, children usually qualify for coverage at much higher income levels than adults, either through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Many states cover kids in households earning 200% to over 300% of FPL. Pregnant individuals also get more generous limits almost everywhere, often 185% FPL or higher, because prenatal and postpartum coverage is a federal priority. Nearly every state now extends Medicaid coverage for a full 12 months postpartum under this permanent federal option — as of 2026 Arkansas is the lone holdout, after Wisconsin acted in February 2026.

Aged, blind, and disabled applicants: a different rulebook

If you’re applying for Medicaid based on age (65+) or disability rather than income alone, the math changes. Most states tie the income limit to SSI: for 2026, the SSI federal benefit rate is $994 a month for an individual and $1,491 for a couple, and many states set their Medicaid income limit at or near 100% of the FPL rather than the SSI rate directly. These programs also apply asset limits — commonly $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple in countable resources, though a home, one vehicle, and certain burial funds are usually excluded, per SSA.gov and Medicaid.gov guidance.

For nursing home or other institutional long-term care Medicaid, many states use a “special income limit” set at 300% of the SSI federal benefit rate — $2,982 a month for 2026. Earning more than that doesn’t disqualify you outright; it usually means income above the limit gets directed into a Qualified Income Trust (“Miller Trust”) to still qualify. Rules here vary significantly by state, and a handful of states (called 209(b) states) use even more restrictive tests than the SSI standard. Always verify specifics with your state Medicaid office or an elder-law resource before assuming you don’t qualify.

Worked example: same income, two different outcomes

Say Maria is a single mother of two, working full time, earning $30,000 a year ($2,500 a month) — a household of three.

If Maria lives in Ohio (an expansion state): 138% of the FPL for a household of three is $37,702 a year in 2026. Her $30,000 income falls comfortably under that line, so she qualifies for Medicaid herself, and her children qualify too — either through Medicaid or Ohio’s CHIP program, whichever the state’s system assigns based on more granular child-specific thresholds.

If Maria lives in Texas (a non-expansion state): Texas’s Medicaid limit for parents is far below the poverty line — 15% of FPL — about $4,098 a year, or $342 a month, for a family of three. Maria’s $30,000 income is well above that, so she does not qualify for Medicaid as a parent. Because Texas hasn’t expanded coverage to adults generally, there’s no other Medicaid category for her to use. She would need to look at ACA marketplace plans through HealthCare.gov, where her income likely qualifies her for premium tax credits. Her children, however, are covered separately — Texas’s CHIP program covers kids in households earning up to roughly 201% of FPL, so they’d likely still get coverage even though Maria doesn’t.

This is the practical, everyday effect of the expansion decision: identical income, identical family size, very different outcomes depending on the state line.

How to check your exact number

1. Find your household size and add up MAGI-countable income for everyone in the tax household.
2. Look up your state’s specific Medicaid income percentage for your category (adult, parent, child, pregnant, aged/disabled) — Medicaid.gov’s state-by-state page links directly to each state agency.
3. Compare your income to that percentage of the current FPL, using the guideline year your state has adopted.
4. If you’re near the line, apply anyway. Eligibility is determined case by case, and deductions or disregards can shift the outcome.
5. If you’re over the limit, check HealthCare.gov for marketplace subsidies — many people who don’t qualify for Medicaid still qualify for reduced-cost private coverage.

Did Medicaid income limits go up in 2026?

Yes — they already did. HHS published the 2026 poverty guidelines on January 15, 2026, a 2.63% inflation adjustment that raised the one-person figure to $15,960 and the family-of-four figure to $33,000. Confirm your state’s implementation date, since some states take a few weeks to update their systems.

What if my income is just slightly above the limit?

You may still qualify through a “spend-down” or medically needy program if your state offers one — you’d owe a portion of medical expenses each month before Medicaid kicks in, similar to a deductible. Not all states offer this option for all categories, so check with your state Medicaid agency. Marketplace coverage with subsidies is also worth comparing.

Do Medicaid income limits count gross or net income?

For most non-elderly applicants, Medicaid uses Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) — similar to the number on your tax return, before certain deductions but excluding things like Supplemental Security Income. For aged, blind, or disabled applicants, states use SSI-based income counting rules, which allow different deductions and disregards. Your state Medicaid application will walk through the exact calculation.

Sources
– Medicaid.gov — https://www.medicaid.gov
– HealthCare.gov — https://www.healthcare.gov
– HHS ASPE Poverty Guidelines — https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines
– Social Security Administration (SSI) — https://www.ssa.gov
– CMS.gov — https://www.cms.gov

Related reading

• Social Security COLA for 2026: How Much Bigger Will Your Check Be?
• Medicare Open Enrollment: Dates, What You Can Change, and Costly Mistakes
• Medicare Advantage vs Original Medicare: A Plain-English Comparison

Check the official source →