Where does CMS publish the 2026 federal poverty guidelines by state and household size?
Executive summary
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services directs readers to the official HHS publication of the 2026 poverty guidelines, which are published in the Federal Register and reproduced on HHS/ASPE and Medicaid-related CMS web pages; state- and household-size breakouts for the contiguous U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii appear in that Federal Register notice and are echoed in CMS guidance and agency webpages [1] [2] [3]. State-level or program-specific presentations (for example, Medicaid dual-eligibility charts) are published on Medicaid.gov and by some state and program partners that rely on the Federal Register figures [3] [4].
1. Where to find the authoritative Federal Poverty Guidelines for 2026
The legally authoritative source for the 2026 poverty guidelines is the Department of Health and Human Services' notice published in the Federal Register, which contains the annual update, the effective date (January 13, 2026), and the full table of guidelines for the 48 contiguous states and D.C., plus separate figures for Alaska and Hawaii [1]. HHS/ASPE also posts the poverty guidelines and notes explicitly that "the 2026 poverty guidelines are published in the Federal Register," and provides downloadable data and a Poverty Guidelines API for program use [2].
2. How CMS republishes and uses those figures
CMS has issued an informational bulletin and related guidance that applies the HHS-published poverty guidelines to Medicaid and Medicare savings program eligibility standards, and the CMS bulletin cites the Federal Register and provides links to Medicaid.gov pages where program-specific charts and the dual-eligible standards chart are posted [3]. Those CMS materials are not the primary source of the numbers but interpret and apply the HHS/Federal Register figures to eligibility calculations used by states and programs [3].
3. What the Federal Register table contains and why it matters
The Federal Register notice performs the legal update by applying the CPI-U inflation adjustment to Census poverty thresholds and then publishing standardized guideline amounts, which include separate entries for Alaska and Hawaii and instructions for additional household members; the 2026 notice notes a 2.63% price increase applied to produce the updated figures [1]. Agencies, states, and program administrators use the Federal Register table as the canonical source because the guidelines are updated by law and the notice explains methodological details that matter for eligibility rules [1] [2].
4. Where to get state- or program-tailored tables by household size
For routine operational use—state eligibility staff, Medicaid planners, and community organizations—CMS posts program-specific charts and downloadable PDFs on Medicaid.gov that translate the Federal Register’s single-page tables into program-relevant thresholds (for example, dual-eligible Medicare Savings Program charts and state-facing guidance) and the LIHEAP Clearinghouse and state human services sites also reshape the HHS figures into FFY or program percent-of-FPL tables [3] [4]. Third-party explainer sites and some advocacy groups reproduce the HHS/Federal Register numbers (e.g., one-person and two-person figures for contiguous U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii), but those reproductions ultimately trace back to the Federal Register and ASPE pages [5] [6].
5. Practical navigation: where to click now
To obtain the 2026 federal poverty amounts sorted by state grouping and household size, consult the HHS/ASPE poverty guidelines page (which links to the Federal Register and offers downloadable data and an API) and the Federal Register notice itself for the official table; then, if program application is the goal, open the CMS informational bulletin and the relevant Medicaid.gov eligibility pages that include program-specific charts and interpretations [2] [1] [3]. If a user needs simple quick figures, reputable reproductions (news and nonprofit sites) are available, but those should be cross-checked with the Federal Register or ASPE because the Federal Register notice is the primary legal text [5] [2].
6. Limitations and divergent presentations to watch for
Some state pages and advocacy materials reframe HHS guidelines into percentages (e.g., 100%, 150%, 200% of FPL) or fiscal-year tables for programs like LIHEAP, and rounding or program-specific formulas can produce slightly different presentation formats—none of which replace the Federal Register as the authoritative source; users should therefore verify which dataset a state or program is using and consult the Federal Register or ASPE when precision is required [4] [1] [2].