Final 2026 Open Enrollment Report: Household Income (

Next, we come to HOUSEHOLD INCOME BRACKETS. This is, of course, extremely important since household income is one of the most critical factors in calculating how much financial assistance enrollees receive (or if they're eligible for Advance Premium Tax Credits (ATPC) at all). Since there's so many income bracket columns and there's a lot to delve into for many of them, I've broken the full spreadsheet out into several sections/posts. The first focuses on exchange enrollees who earn less than 138% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). This is a critical threshold because it's the cut-off point for ACA Medicaid expansion eligibility in the 40 states (+DC) which have expanded the program. There's actually two distinct populations here: Enrollees who earn less than 100% FPL and those who earn between 100 - 138% FPL. ACA enrollees earning under 100% FPL make up a pretty small portion of total ACA exchange enrollment for several reasons. The first, of course, is because most states have expanded Medicaid out to the 138% FPL threshold; the second is that even in non-expansion states, federal tax credits are generally only available to enrollees who earn more than 100% FPL.