ACA Health Insurance Subsidy Estimator

Estimate your 2026 marketplace premium tax credit under the current rules — enhanced subsidies expired end of 2025.

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The ledger
100% of federal poverty level for your household size$0
Your income as % of FPL0%
Expected contribution rate0%
Your expected monthly payment$0
Estimated monthly subsidy$0

This is a simplified educational estimate using current 2026 rules — not an official subsidy calculation. Get your exact amount at healthcare.gov or through your state's marketplace.

Get your exact number

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How ACA premium tax credits work in 2026

The Affordable Care Act caps how much of your income you're expected to pay toward a "benchmark" Silver marketplace plan, on a sliding scale by income. The federal government covers the rest, in the form of a premium tax credit that's usually applied directly to lower your monthly bill.

Your expected payment ≈ income × applicable percentage (rises with income, from ~2% near the poverty line to ~9.96% near 400% FPL)
Subsidy = benchmark plan cost − your expected payment (floored at $0)

Why 2026 looks different from recent years

Temporary enhanced subsidies from the American Rescue Plan Act (2021), extended through 2025 by the Inflation Reduction Act, expired at the end of 2025 and were not extended by Congress as of mid-2026. This restored the original ACA structure: a hard income cliff at 400% of the federal poverty level (no subsidy at all above that line, regardless of plan cost) and a higher maximum expected-contribution percentage than the enhanced-subsidy years. KFF estimates this roughly doubled average net premium payments for subsidized enrollees compared to 2025.

What this estimate doesn't include

This uses a simplified, approximated version of the IRS's applicable percentage table — the real calculation also factors in your exact county's benchmark Silver plan cost (which varies significantly by location) and your household's specific ages. If you don't know your area's benchmark plan cost, this tool falls back to a rough national placeholder, which will be less accurate than checking healthcare.gov directly.

What exactly is the "400% FPL cliff"?

It's the income cutoff — 400% of the federal poverty level for your household size — above which no premium tax credit is available under current 2026 rules. Earning even one dollar above this threshold means paying full, unsubsidized price for a marketplace plan.

Could the enhanced subsidies come back?

Several legislative proposals to restore or modify the enhanced subsidies have been discussed in Congress, but none had been enacted as of mid-2026. Check current news or healthcare.gov for the latest status, since this could change.

Does this affect employer-sponsored health insurance too?

No — this premium tax credit applies only to individual marketplace (Affordable Care Act exchange) plans. If you have employer-sponsored coverage, a different affordability test applies, and marketplace subsidies are generally unavailable if your employer plan is considered affordable.

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