Home › Subsidy calculator › Covered California income limits 2026

California · licensed here · 2026 plan year

What Are the Covered California Income Limits for 2026? Every Line, by Family Size

Written and reviewed by Dick Tracy, licensed health insurance broker (NPN 20414610) · Published September 4, 2026

🔍 Find my family's lines 📊 The full 2026 table 🧮 Estimate my subsidy in dollars

For 2026 coverage, Covered California gives a federal premium tax credit to households between 100% and 400% of the poverty level: $15,650 to $62,600 for one person and $32,150 to $128,600 for a family of four. Adults under 138% ($22,025 single, $45,540 for four) go to Medi-Cal instead. California adds its own state subsidy up to 165% ($25,823 single, $53,048 for four), and it charges a tax penalty if you go without coverage. Every line for households of one to eight is below, then what to do if you are over the top one. I educate, you decide.

The full Covered California income chart for 2026

This is Covered California's own program-eligibility chart, dated March 2026, laid out so you can read across one row. The Medi-Cal column runs on the 2026 poverty guidelines. Everything to its right runs on the 2025 guidelines, because the federal rule sets a plan year's credit eligibility with the prior year's table. That is why the numbers do not line up as clean multiples of each other.

Source: Covered California, Program Eligibility by Federal Poverty Level for 2026. The 100% floor is $15,650 for one person and $32,150 for four. Children under 19 qualify for Medi-Cal up to 266% of poverty and pregnant women up to 213%.

Read it like a ladder, not a wall. A single person earning $30,000 is under the Silver 87 line, so they get the federal credit and a silver plan with deductibles cut to a fraction. At $40,000 they lose the enhanced silver but keep the credit. At $62,600 they keep the credit. At $62,601 they lose all of it. The subsidy calculator turns any rung on that ladder into a monthly dollar figure for your ages.

California's state subsidy: who gets it and what it does

When the enhanced federal credits expired on December 31, 2025, California was one of the few states that reached for its own checkbook. The 2026 California Premium Subsidy puts $190 million from the Health Care Affordability Reserve Fund on top of the federal credit for households at or below 165% of the poverty level. Under 150% of poverty it drops your share of the benchmark silver premium to 0% of income. Between 150% and 165% your share is 3.19% to 3.91% of income instead of the federal 4.19% to 4.91%. Above 165%, nothing. The average recipient saves about $45 a month, and it is reconciled on your California return with a repayment cap that depends on income, unlike the federal credit, which has no cap for 2026.

Sources: Covered California, 2026 State Premium Subsidy policy explainer (February 2026); Covered California enrollment release, February 26, 2026.

The penalty for going without coverage in California

California is one of the few states with its own individual mandate. Go without coverage and the Franchise Tax Board charges the greater of a flat amount per uninsured person (at least $950 per adult and $475 per child for tax year 2025, capped at three times the adult amount per household and indexed each year) or 2.5% of household income above the state filing threshold. Either way it is capped at the state average bronze premium, which Covered California set at $420 a month per person for 2026, so a family of five or more tops out at $2,100 a month. The exemptions that matter most: a coverage gap of three consecutive months or less, coverage that would cost more than 8.05% of your income, and income below the filing threshold. You claim them on Form 3853 with your state return, or through Covered California for the hardship and religious exemptions.

Sources: Covered California, Individual Mandate and Penalty quick guide (March 2026); Covered California, 2026 penalty calculation; exemptions. The 2026 flat amounts are indexed by the Franchise Tax Board and had not been posted when this page was written.

What Covered California plans cost in 2026, and what changed

Source: KFF analysis of marketplace data, 2026 plan year.

Covered California's statewide average rate increase for 2026 was 10.3%, about half the national figure it cited, with 11 carriers selling plans and one national carrier leaving the market. The enrollment report that closed the 2026 open enrollment on February 26, 2026 showed 1,927,371 plan selections, the second-highest ever, but new sign-ups fell 32% and the cancellation rate among middle-income renewals that lost the enhanced federal credit doubled to 22%. That is the cliff showing up in real households. Your actual premium moves with your age, your rating region (Los Angeles is not Sacramento), the metal tier, and the network, which is why the calculator scales the benchmark by age and why a call with your county and ages beats any table.

Sources: Covered California 2026 rates announcement (August 14, 2025); Covered California, February 26, 2026.

Medi-Cal in 2026: three changes that trip people up

First, the asset test is back for non-MAGI Medi-Cal as of January 1, 2026: seniors, people with disabilities, and long-term care are limited to $130,000 for one person plus $65,000 for each additional household member. Income-based Medi-Cal for adults under 65 has no asset test. Second, new full-scope enrollment for undocumented adults 19 and over is paused as of January 1, 2026; people already enrolled keep coverage if they renew on time, and starting July 1, 2027 members ages 19 to 59 with unsatisfactory immigration status pay a $30 monthly premium. Third, under the federal law passed in July 2025, lawfully present immigrants under 100% of poverty lost federal marketplace credit eligibility for 2026. If any of that describes your household, do not guess at the application. Ask.

Sources: DHCS All County Welfare Directors Letter 25-33; Justice in Aging, Medi-Cal asset limit FAQ.

Open enrollment and special enrollment dates

Covered California's open enrollment for 2027 coverage runs November 1, 2026 through January 31, 2027, a full two weeks longer than HealthCare.gov states. A federal rule that would have cut it short was thrown out by a federal court on June 12, 2026, and Covered California confirmed the full window in its June agent briefing. Outside that window you need a qualifying life event, and most special enrollment periods last 60 days from the event: losing other coverage, marriage or domestic partnership, a birth or adoption, a permanent move into or within California, gaining lawful presence, or release from incarceration. Medi-Cal enrolls year-round.

Sources: Covered California Agent Briefing, June 2026; Covered California qualifying life events.

Over the line in California? Your doors are different here

Here is where California stops looking like Texas. State law requires every individual plan to be sold without medical underwriting, on or off the exchange, and short-term plans have been banned since 2019. So the private, priced-on-your-health plan that a healthy Floridian buys to beat an unsubsidized marketplace premium does not exist in California. What does exist for a healthy self-employed Californian is a pre-established ERISA group plan, which prices you on group rates instead of the community average and, because ERISA is federal law, is not something the state can close. Fixed indemnity, accident, and critical illness coverage remain legal as add-ons. I walk through all of that on the California self-employed guide. And one California-specific reality check: the state's median household income is $100,149, which puts the median family of four inside the subsidy range and a good chunk of self-employed households right around the $128,600 line. That is exactly where a Solo 401(k) or SEP contribution, run with your tax professional, can change which side of the cliff you land on.

Sources: California Department of Insurance, SB 910 notice; Insurance Code section 10965.3; Census Bureau, household income 2024. California has 3,502,950 businesses with no employees, the most of any state (Census Nonemployer Statistics, 2022).

Common questions about Covered California income limits