What are Michigan’s 2026 Federal Poverty Level dollar amounts by household size used for Medicaid eligibility?
Executive summary
The reporting provided does not include an official list of Michigan’s 2026 Federal Poverty Level (FPL) dollar amounts by household size; Michigan’s Medicaid eligibility references percentages of the federal guideline (for example, adult and child eligibility cutoffs) rather than state-specific dollar tables in the supplied sources [1] [2] [3]. Federal FPL dollar amounts are set annually by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and states — including Michigan — apply those numbers (or percentages of them) to determine eligibility, with the Medicaid system slated to switch from using the 2025 to the 2026 FPL figures in spring 2026 according to health-policy reporting [4].
1. What the question is actually asking and why it matters
The user requests the exact 2026 dollar thresholds by household size that Michigan uses to decide Medicaid eligibility; that translates into two pieces of information: the federal poverty guideline dollar amounts for 2026 (the base figures published by HHS) and the Michigan eligibility percentages or policy rules that convert those base dollars into enrollment cutoffs [4] [2].
2. What the Michigan reporting in hand actually shows about eligibility (percentages, examples)
Michigan’s public guidance and secondary reporting emphasize income limits expressed as percentages of the FPL rather than publishing a standalone state table of 2026 dollar amounts in the materials supplied: the Healthy Michigan Plan references eligibility at “at or below 133% of the federal poverty level” and gives illustrative dollar examples for a single person and a family of four in its text (about $18,000 and $37,000 respectively) rather than a formal 2026 FPL chart in these sources [1]. Independent guides and Medicaid summaries compiled in the reporting note commonly applied thresholds used in Michigan — adults often evaluated at roughly 138% of FPL for Medicaid expansion programs and children at much higher percentages (for example, reporting cites adult cutoffs around $21,600 and family-of-four examples near $44,000 tied to ~138% calculations in companion coverage) — but those are presented as program examples and interpretive guidance rather than an official 2026 FPL schedule [3] [2].
3. Where the 2026 dollar numbers actually come from and why they’re absent here
The authoritative dollar amounts for each household size are published annually by HHS in the Federal Register as the FPL guidelines and are then used by states for eligibility; health-policy trackers note that Medicaid systems use the current year’s FPL numbers and that Michigan will transition from the 2025 to the 2026 figures in spring 2026, which explains why some guides still show 2025-based examples [4] [5]. The documents supplied include 2025-related materials (state PDFs and legal aid tables) but do not include the HHS 2026 guideline table itself; therefore the exact 2026 dollar figures by household size cannot be reliably asserted from the provided sources [6] [5].
4. How to get the precise 2026 dollar amounts and calculate Michigan cutoffs once they’re available
To produce the exact Michigan dollar cutoffs for Medicaid eligibility, take the HHS-published 2026 FPL annual amounts by household size (the authoritative source is the HHS Federal Register notice) and multiply those base numbers by the eligibility percentages Michigan applies (for example, ~133% or 138% for adults under expansion rules, higher multiples for children per MIChild/CHIP rules) as reflected in state materials and Medicaid guides [1] [2] [3] [4]. Because the supplied reporting does not include the HHS table for 2026, those multiplications cannot be completed here without introducing numbers not present in the sources; once the HHS 2026 poverty guidelines are published (or obtained from Michigan’s MDHHS updates), the calculation method in these cited guides will yield the precise dollar thresholds [4] [2].
5. Alternative perspectives and transparency about limitations
Some consumer and health-plan websites compile ready-made FPL calculators and estimated dollar tables for 2026, but those are secondary sources and may lag or interpret HHS notices differently; the reporting set contains such tools and interpretive pages but lacks the primary HHS 2026 guideline table, so reliance on those calculators should be balanced against the official HHS Federal Register and Michigan MDHHS postings [7] [8] [9]. Given the absence of an explicit 2026 dollar table in the provided sources, the responsible conclusion is procedural: Michigan uses federally published FPL dollar amounts and the state’s percentage rules to set Medicaid cutoffs, but the exact 2026 dollar figures by household size were not present in these documents and therefore cannot be authoritatively listed here [4] [1].