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Georgia · licensed here · 2026 plan year

What Are the Georgia Access Income Limits for 2026? Tax Credit, Pathways, Medicaid, and PeachCare Lines by Family Size

Written and reviewed by Dick Tracy, licensed health insurance broker (NPN 20414610) · Published September 18, 2026

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

Georgia Access has two income lines that matter, not one. For 2026 coverage the federal premium tax credit runs from 100% to 400% of the poverty level: $15,650 to $62,600 for one person and $32,150 to $128,600 for a family of four. One dollar over the top and the credit is zero, because the enhanced credits expired December 31, 2025. The bottom line bites just as hard, because Georgia has not expanded Medicaid. An adult under the floor gets no tax credit, and the only door is Georgia Pathways to Coverage, which covers adults up to 100% of poverty ($15,960 for one person) who complete 80 hours a month of work or other qualifying activity. Children are a different story: Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids cover them up to 247% of poverty, $81,504 for a family of four. Every line for households of one to eight is below, then the doors if you are over the top one. I educate, you decide.

The full Georgia income chart for 2026

Two programs, two poverty tables. The tax-credit range for 2026 coverage runs on the 2025 poverty guidelines ($15,650 for one person plus $5,500 each), because the federal rule sets a plan year's eligibility with the prior year's table. Pathways, Medicaid, and PeachCare run on the 2026 guidelines ($15,960 plus $5,680), on a chart that took effect March 1, 2026. That mismatch creates a thin overlap: a single adult between $15,650 and $15,960 is over the floor for a tax credit and still under the Pathways line. Georgia Access does not publish a dollar chart of its own; its financial help page says only that income must be above 100% of poverty. The children's column shows ages 6 to 18; younger children qualify higher, at 149% for ages 1 to 5 ($4,097 a month for a family of four) and 205% for infants ($5,637 a month).

Sources: Georgia Medicaid, 2026 Financial Limits, all programs (effective March 1, 2026), linked from Georgia Medicaid basic eligibility; Georgia Pathways FAQs; Georgia Access, financial assistance. The state's monthly limits behind the table: children 6 to 18 $1,769 for one, $2,399 for two, $3,028 for three, $3,657 for four, plus $630 for each additional person; PeachCare for Kids $3,285, $4,455, $5,624, $6,792. Pregnant women qualify for Medicaid up to 220% of poverty: $3,968 a month for a household of two, $5,009 for three, $6,050 for four. One caution: the PeachCare page on the Department of Community Health site still shows an older, lower dollar table; the figures here are from the 2026 chart. For 2027 coverage the tax credit table moves to the 2026 guidelines: $15,960 to $63,840 for one and $33,000 to $132,000 for four.

The line at the bottom: Georgia has not expanded Medicaid

In most states I work in, an adult whose income falls under the tax credit range lands in Medicaid. Georgia is one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid, so that safety net is not there. Regular Medicaid covers parents only at very low incomes, flat dollar amounts on the state's chart: $310 a month for a household of one, $457 for two, $551 for three, $653 for four. An adult without children does not qualify at any income unless they are pregnant, 65 or older, blind, or disabled.

Georgia's answer is Pathways to Coverage. It covers adults 19 to 64 with household income up to 100% of poverty, $15,960 a year for one person and $27,320 for a family of three, who complete at least 80 hours a month of qualifying activities such as work, school, job training, or community service. Since October 2025 you report those hours when you apply and at your yearly renewal, not every month, and coverage starts the first day of the month you apply. People under the line who cannot meet the hours fall into what is called the coverage gap: too little income for a tax credit, no Medicaid. The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute puts that group at 180,000 to 200,000 Georgians.

Why this matters if you are self-employed: the tax credit is based on the income you project for the year. Georgia Access has to see a projection at or above the floor, $15,650 for a single person, before it gives you any credit at all. If your net profit runs anywhere near that number, build the projection carefully, keep the records behind it, and call me before you enroll, not after.

Sources: Georgia Medicaid, 2026 Financial Limits; Georgia Pathways FAQs; Georgia DCH, Pathways updates, October 1, 2025; KFF, the coverage gap (July 2026); Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

What Georgia Access plans cost in 2026, and how many people dropped

Sources: KFF, 2026 benchmark premiums; KFF, marketplace enrollment.

Georgia has one of the biggest marketplaces in the country, and it took one of the biggest hits. The Office of Insurance did not publish an average approved rate change for 2026; the rate filings tracked by ACA Signups work out to a weighted average increase of 34.6% for people paying full price, with the end of the enhanced credits responsible for about 6.8 points of it. Sign-ups fell from 1,510,852 to 1,324,295, and then people stopped paying: state data obtained by The Current showed about 950,000 enrolled as of April 17, 2026, down from 1.5 million in January 2025, with many auto-renewed customers never making the first payment. Eight carriers sell on Georgia Access in 2026. For 2027, healthinsurance.org reports that Cigna is leaving and Antidote Health is entering, and preliminary filings point to another increase of about 20%.

Georgia has no state premium subsidy; the Georgia Access financial help page lists only the federal credit and the federal cost-sharing reductions on Silver plans up to 250% of poverty. What Georgia does have is a reinsurance program, which pays part of the largest claims so carriers file lower rates. The Office of Insurance estimates it lowers 2026 premiums by 9.9% statewide, from 5.0% in the tier that gets the least help to 26.5% in the tier that gets the most, which is aimed at rural, high-cost regions. That discount is in the sticker price, so it helps people over the line too. The current waiver runs through December 31, 2026, and the state has asked to extend it through 2031.

Sources: ACA Signups, Georgia 2026 approved rate changes; The Current, April 20, 2026; healthinsurance.org, Georgia marketplace; ACA Signups, Georgia 2027 preliminary filings; Georgia Access, financial assistance; Georgia Office of Insurance, 1332 waiver public hearing presentation, May 7, 2026; Georgia Office of Insurance, 1332 waiver.

Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids: children and pregnancy

Georgia covers children far higher up the income scale than adults. Medicaid covers infants up to 205% of poverty, children 1 to 5 up to 149%, and children 6 to 18 up to 133%. Above those lines PeachCare for Kids covers children through age 18 up to 247% of poverty: $6,792 a month, $81,504 a year, for a family of four. PeachCare has a monthly premium that depends on income, from $11 to $36 for one child and capped at $16 to $72 per family, with no premium or copay for children under six, and a family never pays more than 5% of its income in premiums and copays combined. Pregnant women qualify for Medicaid up to 220% of poverty. The practical point for a family on Georgia Access: in a household of four earning $75,000, the children belong in PeachCare and only the adults go on the marketplace plan, which changes the math on the whole family's coverage. Georgia Access screens everyone in the household for Medicaid and PeachCare first.

Sources: Georgia Medicaid, 2026 Financial Limits; Georgia DFCS Medicaid manual, section 2194, PeachCare premiums; Georgia DCH, PeachCare benefits and cost.

Pathways changes coming January 1, 2027

Georgia is not an expansion state, but the new federal work requirements apply to Pathways anyway. Starting January 1, 2027, the state says the 80 hours a month become "community engagement" under federal law. There are new ways to meet it: earning at least $580 a month, or for seasonal workers, averaging $580 a month over the prior six months. And some things stop counting, including job readiness programs and being the parent of a child under six. Current members are affected at their 2027 renewal, and the state's advice is to keep proof of your activities starting December 2026. For a self-employed person near the line, the $580 a month test is the one to know: steady net earnings above it can satisfy the requirement on their own.

Source: Georgia Pathways, H.R. 1 changes.

Open enrollment and special enrollment on Georgia Access

As I write this, Georgia Access has not posted its dates for 2027 coverage. The expected window is November 1, 2026 through January 15, 2027, the same as last year, when enrolling by December 15 meant a January 1 start and enrolling after that meant February 1. A federal rule that would have ended open enrollment by December 31 was blocked in court in 2026 and is on appeal, so confirm on Georgia Access before you plan around January, and check my 2027 dates page, which I update when dates are final. Outside the window you need a qualifying event, such as losing job coverage, a move, a marriage, or a birth, generally reported within 60 days. Losing Medicaid or PeachCare qualifies. Georgia's list does not include a special enrollment period for pregnancy or for low income. Medicaid, PeachCare, and Pathways take applications year-round.

Sources: Georgia Access, special enrollment periods; Georgia Office of Insurance, October 31, 2025; healthinsurance.org, open enrollment deadlines.

Over the line in Georgia? More doors than New York

Here is the part that makes Georgia different from New York, where I sit. Off the marketplace, Georgia allows private plans that are medically underwritten. A healthy household earning $135,000 that just watched its credit go to zero is not stuck paying the sticker price on a market that went up by a third; it can be priced on its own health, with a national PPO network of the PHCS and MultiPlan type attached, and for healthy people that number is often meaningfully lower. The second door is a fixed-benefit plan, what I call the red bucket, for healthy people who want a low premium and are comfortable shopping for care. The third is Georgia Access itself, on or off exchange, which is the right call for anyone with a health condition. The fourth is a pre-established ERISA group plan at group rates, which can pull ahead when a spouse and kids are going on the policy. Short-term plans are widely sold here too; Georgia sets no duration limit of its own, so federal rules apply, and they exclude pre-existing conditions, so I treat them as a gap-filler, not a plan. I walk through all four doors on the Georgia self-employed guide. Georgia's median household income is $79,991, which means the typical family of four is under the $128,600 line and the two-earner professional household is the one standing on it. If you are within $10,000 of it, a Solo 401(k) or SEP contribution, run with your tax professional, is the first lever to pull.

Sources: healthinsurance.org, Georgia short-term rules; Census ACS 2024 one-year estimate, Georgia median household income.

Common questions about Georgia Access income limits