What are the 2026 federal poverty guideline income thresholds for Alaska and Hawaii?
Executive summary
The federal poverty guidelines for 2026 coverage use HHS poverty figures issued for 2025; Alaska and Hawaii are assigned higher dollar levels than the 48 contiguous states (examples: 2025 single-person FPL — $19,550 in Alaska and $17,990 in Hawaii) and those figures are what programs use for eligibility in 2026 coverage calculations (sources: HealthInsurance.org and ASPE/USCIS materials) [1] [2] [3].
1. Alaska and Hawaii get higher FPL numbers — why that matters
The Department of Health and Human Services publishes separate poverty guideline sets for Alaska and Hawaii because their cost-of-living adjustments date back to administrative practice in the late 1960s; those higher guidelines feed directly into program eligibility and subsidy calculations [2] [4]. Practically, that means thresholds for Medicaid/CHIP, Marketplace premium tax credits, and other means-tested benefits are larger in those states than in the continental U.S., so identical household incomes represent a lower percentage of FPL in Alaska and Hawaii [1] [5].
2. Which year’s numbers determine 2026 coverage thresholds
Marketplace cost-assistance and many program rules for coverage year 2026 use the HHS poverty guidelines published for 2025; the 2025 guideline figures are therefore the operative numbers when determining 2026 eligibility and subsidy levels unless a later rule changes that linkage (health sites and government pages identify 2025 figures as those used for 2026 coverage) [6] [1] [7].
3. Concrete 2025 FPL examples used for 2026 calculations
Reporting that summarizes the HHS figures shows the 2025 FPL amounts are higher in Alaska and Hawaii; for example the 2025 single-person FPL is reported as $19,550 for Alaska and $17,990 for Hawaii — numbers cited by HealthInsurance.org and reflected in HHS/ASPE publications used by agencies that implement the rules [1] [7] [3].
4. How programs apply those numbers — multiple uses, some differences
Different federal programs use the poverty guidelines in different ways: some apply straight percentages of the FPL (e.g., 100%, 138%, 250%, 400% used in marketplace and Medicaid contexts), some modify or round the figures, and some combine the guideline with other eligibility rules — but the base guideline for Alaska/Hawaii remains higher and thus raises the dollar thresholds used in those percentage calculations [6] [7] [5].
5. Recent policy context that affects how far subsidies reach
Independent reporting on 2025–2026 policy notes that temporary expansions of marketplace subsidies that removed the 400% cliff expired after 2025 unless new legislation extended them; absent further action, the traditional 100%–400% eligibility band applies for 2026, calculated using the 2025 poverty guideline figures [6]. That political decision changes how many people qualify for assistance even though the Alaska/Hawaii FPL differentials remain intact.
6. Sources, limits and what I could not find in current reporting
Authoritative federal sources and explanatory sites confirm separate guidelines for Alaska and Hawaii and link 2025 figures to 2026 coverage decisions (ASPE, HealthCare.gov, USCIS summaries) [2] [8] [3]. Available sources provided here list the existence of higher Alaska/Hawaii numbers and give explicit 2025 single-person figures, but a full table of every household-size threshold for Alaska and Hawaii (for all household sizes and for direct 2026-published FPL tables) was not included verbatim in these excerpts; readers should consult the HHS/ASPE published tables or the Federal Register notices for the complete 2025 guideline table used for 2026 coverage [7] [9].
7. Practical takeaway for residents or advisers in Alaska and Hawaii
If you live in Alaska or Hawaii, plan eligibility and subsidy estimates for coverage year 2026 using the 2025 HHS poverty guideline dollars (which are higher than the contiguous U.S. amounts). That raises nominal income thresholds for program access; however, policy choices (for example, whether extra subsidy provisions are extended) will determine the actual range of subsidy eligibility even after applying the Alaska/Hawaii-adjusted FPL numbers [1] [6].
If you want, I can extract the complete per-household-size 2025 FPL table for Alaska and Hawaii from the ASPE/HHS published files referenced above and show the exact dollar amounts used to compute 2026 eligibility [7] [2].