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Maryland · licensed here · 2026 plan year

What Are the Maryland Health Connection Income Limits for 2026? Medicaid, MCHP, State Subsidies, and Tax Credits by Family Size

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

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For 2026 coverage, Maryland Health Connection 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% go to Medicaid ($1,835 a month for one person, $3,795 for four), and children get the Maryland Children's Health Program up to about 322% of poverty. Then Maryland does something only a handful of states do: it pays two subsidies of its own on top of the federal credit, one for everyone under 400% and one for adults 18 to 37. Add the cheapest benchmark premium of any state I serve and Maryland is the softest landing in the country for a family near the line. Every line for households of one to eight is below. I educate, you decide.

The full Maryland income chart for 2026

Two poverty tables are in play. The federal credit for 2026 coverage runs on the 2025 guidelines ($15,650 for one person plus $5,500 each), which the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange confirmed in its October 2025 legislative briefing (400% is $62,600 for one and $128,600 for four). Medicaid and MCHP run on the 2026 guidelines, and the Maryland Department of Health publishes them as monthly limits, so that is how they appear here.

Sources: Maryland Department of Health, Medicaid income limits (effective February 1, 2026); MHBE and MIA briefing to the General Assembly, October 16, 2025; 2025 HHS poverty guidelines. Multiply the Medicaid monthly figure by 12 for a rough annual number: $22,020 for one person, $45,540 for four. For 2027 coverage the credit table moves to the 2026 guidelines: $63,840 for one and $132,000 for four at the cliff.

Maryland's two state subsidies, and who gets them

Maryland Premium Assistance is new for 2026. House Bill 1082 of 2025 told the exchange to build a state subsidy for plan years 2026 and 2027 if the enhanced federal credits expired, and they did. The design: under 200% of poverty ($31,300 single, $64,300 for four) the state replaces 100% of the enhanced credit you lost, so your net premium stays where it was in 2025. From 200% to 250% ($39,125 single, $80,375 for four) it phases from 100% down to 50%. From 250% to 400% it replaces half. Above 400%, nothing. The exchange's own example: a single 40-year-old at $31,300 pays $53 a month in 2026, unchanged, instead of the $173 they would have paid without it. Estimated savings run from $218 a year per member under 133% of poverty to $1,203 a year in the 150% to 200% band. More than 177,000 people were receiving it as of January 23, 2026. Full replacement would have cost $209 million a year, which the state judged unaffordable; the Maryland Insurance Administration said in June 2026 that the program is expected to continue for 2027, possibly at a 25% replacement rate above 250% of poverty.

The Young Adult Subsidy is older and simpler: enrollees ages 18 to 37 with income up to 400% of poverty get an extra state subsidy, funded by an assessment on insurers, and Senate Bill 5 of 2025 extended it through at least 2028. More than 66,000 young adults used it in 2025, and 74% of the 18-to-37 enrollees in the 2026 open enrollment qualified. Young adults get both programs at once. Neither is something you apply for separately; Maryland Health Connection applies them when you enroll.

Sources: MHBE and MIA briefing, October 16, 2025; Governor's office, January 23, 2026; Maryland Insurance Administration, June 26, 2026; Maryland Health Connection 2026 open enrollment bulletin.

What Maryland Health Connection plans cost in 2026

Sources: KFF, 2026 benchmark premiums; Maryland Insurance Administration, approved 2026 rates with exhibits (September 19, 2025).

On September 19, 2025 the Maryland Insurance Administration approved a 13.4% average increase for the individual market, 3.7 points below what the four carrier groups requested, saving about $55 million. The carriers' own filings said the increase would have been 10% to 11% if Congress had extended the enhanced credits; they expect healthier members to leave and the remaining pool to be about 12% sicker, on top of a 6.5% medical cost trend led by a 10.4% jump in drug costs. Two things keep Maryland cheap anyway. The state's reinsurance program, running since 2019, holds rates 30% to 35% below where they would otherwise sit, and 2026 rates are still 6% below 2018. So the 2026 open enrollment closed with 255,612 private-plan enrollments, up 3%, at a time when Pennsylvania was losing one in five. A Maryland family over the cliff has the least to lose of any family I work with, and a Maryland family under it has the most help.

Easy Enrollment: the checkbox on your Maryland tax return

Maryland invented this in 2019 and other states copied it. If you are uninsured when you file your Maryland income tax return, check the box. The Comptroller sends your household size, income, and contact information to Maryland Health Connection, which screens out people who already have coverage and mails you a special enrollment notice. You then have 35 days to pick a plan, outside the normal open enrollment window; Medicaid enrolls year-round anyway. From 2020 through 2022, 117,776 filers checked the box and 10,267 enrolled, about three-quarters of them into Medicaid. Since 2022, people filing for unemployment get the same door. If you missed open enrollment and you are filing a Maryland return, this is your second chance, and almost nobody knows it exists.

Sources: Maryland Easy Enrollment program report (State Archives); COMAR 14.35.07.19, special enrollment periods.

Open enrollment and Maryland's extra special enrollment periods

Maryland's usual open enrollment for the coming year runs November 1 through January 15: enroll by December 31 for a January 1 start, or January 1 to 15 for February 1. Confirm the 2027 window on marylandhealthconnection.gov or on my 2027 dates page, which I update when it is final. Outside the window, Maryland has qualifying events most states lack: pregnancy (90 days from confirmation, with coverage retroactive to the first of that month if you choose), the Easy Enrollment tax-return period (35 days), year-round enrollment for households at or below 150% of poverty, and 60 days for gaining lawful presence or release from incarceration, on top of the usual loss of coverage, marriage, birth, and move.

Source: COMAR 14.35.07.19; Montgomery County enrollment dates.

Medicaid changes coming January 1, 2027

Maryland expanded Medicaid in 2014, so adults qualify up to 138% of poverty with no asset test; about 331,000 people are in the expansion group. Under the federal law passed in July 2025, expansion adults ages 19 to 64 face an 80-hour-a-month work or community engagement requirement starting January 1, 2027, with exemptions for pregnancy, disability, caregiving, and serious health conditions, and renewals move to every six months. The state estimates up to 320,000 people are affected. If you are near the $1,835-a-month line as a single person, the practical risk is income that drifts above it plus a missed six-month renewal, which puts you on Maryland Health Connection mid-year. Report the change the month it happens and the credit picks up where Medicaid left off.

Source: Maryland Department of Health, community engagement requirements.

Over the line in Maryland? Here is the honest picture

Above $62,600 for one person or $128,600 for four, the federal credit and both state subsidies go to zero for 2026 and you pay full price. In Maryland that is a softer blow than anywhere else I am licensed: $414 a month for a 40-year-old on the benchmark silver, against $817 in New York and $1,073 in West Virginia. Maryland allows medically underwritten short-term plans, but only for terms under three months, non-renewable, with a new application and new underwriting each time, so they are a gap-filler between jobs, not a plan you live on. The door that stays open for a healthy self-employed Marylander is a pre-established ERISA group plan at group rates, and I lay it out on the Maryland self-employed guide. One number frames the whole decision here: Maryland's median household income is $102,905, the third-highest in the country, which means a very large share of two-earner and self-employed households sit within a few thousand dollars of the $128,600 line. That is exactly where a Solo 401(k) or SEP contribution, run with your tax professional, decides whether you get $10,000 a year in federal and state help or nothing. Maryland has about 599,000 businesses with no employees. A lot of them are having this exact conversation.

Sources: Maryland Insurance Administration, short-term medical plans; Census Bureau, household income 2024; Census QuickFacts, Maryland.

Common questions about Maryland Health Connection income limits