How does 138% of the Federal Poverty Level translate to monthly income for a single person in 2026?
Executive summary
138% of the 2026 Federal Poverty Level (FPL) for a single-person household in the 48 contiguous states and D.C. equals about $22,025 per year — roughly $1,835 per month — a threshold commonly used to determine Medicaid eligibility in expansion states, though program rules and which year’s guideline is applied can change the practical cutoff [1] [2] [3].
1. What the raw numbers are and how they were calculated
The 2026 FPL for a single person in the contiguous United States (and D.C.) is $15,960; multiplying that figure by 1.38 yields an annual amount of $22,024.80, which is conventionally rounded to $22,025 and divided by 12 to produce a monthly figure of approximately $1,835.40 ($1,835) — a simple arithmetic application of the published guideline [1] [2].
2. State-by-state exceptions that materially change the monthly threshold
Alaska and Hawaii use higher base FPLs: for 2026 Alaska’s single-person FPL is $19,950 and Hawaii’s is $18,360; at 138% those annual thresholds become about $27,502 ($2,291.83/month) for Alaska and $25,337 ($2,111.42/month) for Hawaii — figures that matter for residents of those states because HHS sets separate guidelines there [4] [1].
3. Why 138% is used and the legal/programmatic nuance behind that percentage
Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act ties adult eligibility to 133% of the FPL in statute, but a 5% “income disregard” is commonly applied in practice, effectively yielding a 138% operational cutoff for many expansion-state Medicaid determinations — meaning the 138% figure reflects an administrative adjustment rather than a separate statutory poverty line [3] [5].
4. Timing, which year’s FPL is applied, and why the marketplace can differ
Programs don’t all use the same FPL release: Marketplace subsidy and coverage-year calculations often compare projected income to the prior year’s FPL (so 2026 coverage frequently relies on 2025 guidelines), and HHS notes that the 2026 poverty guidelines themselves are calculated by applying CPI-U adjustments to 2024 thresholds using 2025 price changes; disruptions like the 2025 government shutdown affected the CPI inputs used for the 2026 calculation [3] [6].
5. Administrative rounding, program definitions and practical eligibility caveats
Individual programs decide how to round FPL multiples, which types of income count, and how households are defined; that means a mechanically computed $1,835/month at 138% is a useful rule-of-thumb but not a guaranteed eligibility number — agencies and states may apply different rounding rules, income definitions, and eligibility units when determining who qualifies [7].
6. The practical implications for someone near the threshold
A single person earning just under $22,025 annually in the contiguous U.S. would generally fall at or below 138% FPL and therefore, in most Medicaid expansion states, be within the income range for Medicaid; conversely, small fluctuations in earned or projected income, differences in whether prior-year or current guidelines apply, or state-specific rounding can push an individual above or below the administrative cutoff, affecting access to Medicaid versus marketplace subsidies [1] [3] [7].
7. Limits of available reporting and what cannot be asserted here
The cited sources provide the published FPL amounts, the mechanics of the 138% multiplier, and program guidance, but do not supply exhaustive, state-by-state descriptions of every rounding rule, nor do they reveal individual case outcomes — those determinations require direct state agency policy lookups or case-specific calculations that fall outside the scope of this reporting [7] [3].