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How do the 2026 Federal Poverty Level thresholds compare to 2025 for each household size?
Executive summary
HHS published the 2025 poverty guidelines (used for many 2026 program determinations) showing the 2025 contiguous‑U.S. annual FPL for a single person is $15,650 and for a two‑person household $21,150 (HHS/HealthCare.gov reporting of 2025 figures) [1] [2]. Available sources do not provide a single consolidated table that lists both 2025 and the finalized 2026 HHS poverty‑guideline dollar amounts side‑by‑side for every household size — many outlets note how the prior year’s guideline is used for next‑year subsidy calculations and that 2026 program rules will reference 2025 numbers for Marketplace subsidy eligibility [3] [4].
1. Why the question matters: who uses which year’s FPL
Different programs use poverty guidelines from different years: Medicaid and CHIP commonly use the current year’s FPL numbers; Marketplace premium‑tax‑credit (subsidy) determinations for a coverage year compare projected coverage‑year income to the prior year’s FPL (so 2026 coverage eligibility is compared to the 2025 FPL) [3]. HealthCare.gov and policy briefs emphasize that Alaska and Hawaii have higher dollar levels than the contiguous 48 states and that most eligibility work hinges on the HHS/ASPE poverty guideline release [2] [5].
2. What the available sources actually give you for 2025
Multiple sources republish the HHS/ASPE 2025 poverty guidelines: for the 48 contiguous states the 2025 annual FPL is cited as $15,650 for one person and $21,150 for two people (examples re‑published by Newfront and Medicaid planning sites) [1] [6]. ASPE’s poverty‑guidelines page also notes the 2025 guidelines were calculated by adjusting Census thresholds for price changes and were made public in January 2025 [5].
3. Where 2026 figures appear — and where coverage rules use 2025 instead
Reporting and program guidance repeatedly note that for coverage year calculations in 2026, the marketplace will generally use the 2025 FPL numbers (the prior year) to determine premium tax credit eligibility; several explain the transition timing whereby states may use updated numbers for Medicaid later in the year [3] [4]. Covered California’s 2026 program charts likewise show program eligibility expressed in percentages of FPL for 2026 but rely on FPL dollar lines that reflect the policy that many consumers through 138% will qualify for Medi‑Cal [7]. However, the assembled search results do not include a single authoritative HHS/ASPE table that lists 2026 HHS poverty guidelines (the direct 2026 dollar amounts) for each household size.
4. Why you won’t find a tidy 2025→2026 comparison in these sources
Several of the provided pages focus on mechanics (which year’s guideline applies to which program) rather than publishing a new 2026 dollar table; others repost 2025 tables or program charts for coverage year 2026 that continue to rely on 2025 FPL numbers [3] [4] [7]. ASPE’s site confirms the 2025 guidelines and notes the methodology; the search results do not include an explicit ASPE/FR publication of January 2026 guidelines showing the 2026 dollar levels [5]. Therefore, available sources do not mention the official 2026 dollar‑by‑household‑size poverty guideline values needed to produce an exact 2025→2026 per‑household‑size delta.
5. Practical implications for households and employers
Policy summaries flag consequential effects: employer ACA “affordability” safe harbor calculations for 2026 reference the 2025 federal poverty line dollar figure ($15,650) to set employee contribution thresholds and translate that into a monthly safe‑harbor number [1]. For consumers, marketplaces calculate 2026 premium subsidies by comparing 2026 projected income to the 2025 FPL numbers — so any dollar change in formally published 2026 guidelines will affect programs that use the “current” guideline, but not Marketplace subsidies for 2026 coverage [3].
6. How to get the exact 2026 per‑household comparison you asked for
To produce a precise side‑by‑side table (2025 vs 2026 FPL for each household size), you need the official HHS/ASPE January 2026 poverty guidelines or the Federal Register publication that lists 2026 amounts. The provided search results include ASPE’s poverty‑guidelines hub (which publishes those yearly tables) and several secondary republishers of 2025 figures; consult the ASPE page or Federal Register entry for the authoritative 2026 table when it is posted [5] [2]. Until that specific HHS/ASPE 2026 guideline table is in the sources you gave, I cannot state exact 2026 dollar amounts or compute the deltas (not found in current reporting).
Limitations and competing perspectives: the documentation here is consistent about which year’s FPL each program uses, and multiple secondary outlets reuse the HHS 2025 lines — but because the provided collection lacks a primary HHS table for 2026, this answer cannot produce the numeric 2025→2026 comparison you asked for without additional source material [5] [3]. If you want, I can: (A) pull the official ASPE/Federal‑Register 2026 poverty guideline table and compute the per‑household differences, or (B) produce a sample comparison using typical year‑over‑year CPI adjustments as an estimate — say which you prefer.