Medicare Savings Programs 2026: QMB, SLMB and QI Income Limits and Help Paying the Part B Premium

The Medicare Savings Programs pay the Medicare Part B premium, $202.90 a month in 2026, for people on Medicare who have low income and few savings. For one person in the 48 states and DC, QMB reaches income of $1,350 a month, SLMB $1,616 and QI $1,816, with savings of no more than $9,950 under the federal rules. Put your household in the calculator, and tick “On Medicare” if you are under 65, to see which program you would likely get.

What are the Medicare Savings Programs, and what does each one pay?

They are three programs that help people on Medicare with low income pay Medicare costs, and your state’s Medicaid office runs them. All three pay the Part B premium, which is $202.90 a month for each person in 2026. Part B is the part of Medicare that covers doctor visits and outpatient care, and Part A covers hospital stays. Coinsurance and deductibles are the shares of a bill that Medicare leaves for you to pay. The programs differ in how much income they allow and in what else they pay:

• QMB, the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary program, has the lowest income limit. It pays the Part B premium and also Medicare’s coinsurance and deductibles for Parts A and B (New York’s page).
• SLMB, the Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary program, is for incomes just above QMB’s limit. It pays the Part B premium.
• QI, the Qualifying Individual program, is for incomes just above SLMB’s limit. It pays the Part B premium only, and you cannot have QI and full Medicaid together (New York’s page).

The calculator shows QMB and SLMB as “Likely” and QI as “Maybe”, because QI depends on the money a state has for it each year: Connecticut’s page, for one, says its version of QI depends on funding. Social Security’s table also lists a fourth program, QDWI, with limits of its own. This page covers QMB, SLMB and QI. Full Medicaid is a different program with different limits: see the guide to Medicaid and CHIP.

We read the Part B premium in the District of Columbia’s QMB fact sheet, which says QMB covers it. CMS’s own notice of the premium is the main source, and we could not check it. Medicare.gov blocked our automated checks too. For the income and savings limits we used Social Security’s Program Operations Manual, which restates the federal limits, and then checked state pages.

What are the Medicare Savings Program income limits for 2026?

For one person in the 48 states and DC the limits are $1,350 a month for QMB, $1,616 for SLMB and $1,816 for QI. A couple has a limit for the two incomes together. Here are all three, with the share of the poverty line each one reaches:

• QMB: income up to $1,350 a month for one person and $1,824 for a couple, which is 100% of the poverty line plus the $20.
• SLMB: income over QMB’s limit, up to $1,616 for one person and $2,184 for a couple, which is 120% of the poverty line plus the $20.
• QI: income over SLMB’s limit, up to $1,816 for one person and $2,455 for a couple, which is 135% of the poverty line plus the $20.

These are monthly figures for income before taxes. Each is the poverty line times 100%, 120% or 135%, divided by 12, plus the $20 a month that is not counted for anyone, rounded up to the next dollar (Social Security’s Program Operations Manual, HI 00815.023). The $20 is already inside each figure, so compare your Social Security or pension, before anything is taken out, with the numbers above. The calculator counts pay from work for less, as a later section explains.

Alaska and Hawaii use higher poverty lines, so their limits in dollars are higher. For one person the 2026 poverty line is $19,950 a year in Alaska and $18,360 in Hawaii, against $15,960 in the other states and DC. The percents are the same, and the manual lists the dollar limits for both states.

Here is how the three programs look. Take a 70-year-old in New Jersey who lives alone on $1,300 a month from Social Security, with $2,000 in savings. That income is under QMB’s limit of $1,350, so the calculator shows QMB. Now take the same person with $1,500 a month. That is over QMB’s limit and under SLMB’s limit of $1,616, so the calculator shows SLMB. And take the same person with $1,700 a month. That is over SLMB’s limit and under QI’s limit of $1,816, so the calculator shows QI, marked “Maybe”. New Jersey’s own page prints the federal standards for 2026 (New Jersey’s page), which is why these examples use it.

How much savings can I have and still get a Medicare Savings Program?

Under the federal rules, savings and other resources can be no more than $9,950 for one person and $14,910 for a couple in 2026. Some state charts add a $1,500-a-person allowance for burial costs to these figures and so print higher ones. Colorado’s does (Colorado’s memo).

Several states have no savings limit at all: Maine (22 M.R.S. 3174-LLL), Oregon (Oregon’s page), Vermont (Vermont’s page) and Washington (WAC 182-517-0100). Minnesota has a savings limit of its own, higher than the federal one (Minnesota’s guidelines).

The calculator checks the savings you type in “Savings and cash” against the limit, and skips the check in a state with no limit. It does not ask about other things you own. Your state’s office decides what counts as savings.

How is income counted for the Medicare Savings Programs?

The calculator counts income the way SSI does: all of your Social Security, pension and other income that you do not work for, except the first $20 a month, and less than half of your pay. The guide to SSI explains those rules step by step. In short:

• Income you do not work for, such as Social Security, a pension or unemployment: all of it counts, except the first $20 a month.
• Pay from work: any of the $20 that other income has not used up comes off first. Then the next $65 of pay is left out, and half of what remains.
• A couple: when both spouses are on Medicare, it adds up both incomes and uses the couple’s limit. When only one is on Medicare, it looks at that person’s income alone.

A state can count less. It may ignore more income or more savings, which raises its limits in effect (Social Security’s manual). Illinois’s chart adds $25 to each limit because the state ignores $25 of income.

Which states have higher limits or no savings limit?

A few do, and we confirmed each one below on the state’s own page or law. Alaska and Hawaii have higher dollar limits because their poverty lines are higher, as explained above. The others:

• Colorado: its savings limits include the burial allowance, so they are higher (see above).
• Connecticut: much higher income limits, which its page prints in dollars. It calls QI “ALMB”. The page says ALMB is not available to people on Medicaid and depends on funding.
• District of Columbia: its page shows one program, QMB, which reaches up to 300% of the poverty line.
• Illinois: $25 of income is ignored, as above (Illinois’s chart).
• Maine: no savings limit. QMB reaches up to 185% of the poverty line, and QI covers incomes above 185% and up to 250% (22 M.R.S. 3174-LLL).
• Minnesota: higher savings limits than the federal ones. Its income limits match the federal ones (Minnesota’s guidelines).
• New York: its page lists QMB, up to 138% of the poverty line, and QI, below 186%.
• Oregon: no savings limits. Oregon calls SLMB “SMB” and QI “SMF” (Oregon’s page).
• Vermont: no savings limit. QMB reaches up to 150% of the poverty line and QI up to 202%. Vermont’s SLMB program ended on December 31, 2025, and most members moved to QMB (Vermont’s page).
• Washington: QMB reaches up to 110% of the poverty line, SLMB up to 120% and QI-1 up to 138%, with no savings test (Washington’s flyer).

The calculator uses these state rules for the states above. Every other state uses the federal limits in the calculator. Some state sites blocked our checks, so a state in that group may set different limits than the calculator uses. Ask your state’s office.

What is Extra Help, and do I get it with a Medicare Savings Program?

Extra Help, also called the Part D low-income subsidy, is a separate program that pays part of Medicare drug plan costs, and people approved for QMB get it automatically. Since 2024 everyone who qualifies gets the full amount. Social Security takes the applications. Your income must be under 150% of the poverty line for your household size, counting a spouse who lives with you (POMS HI 03001.020). There is also a savings limit, which Social Security’s manual lists each year (POMS HI 03030.025).

The full amount means no deductible and a plan premium paid up to a regional benchmark. The Inflation Reduction Act ended the partial amounts on January 1, 2024, and raised the income limit from 135% to 150% of the poverty line (POMS HI 03010.005).

People approved for QMB, SLMB or QI get Extra Help without applying, and so do people who get SSI or full Medicaid; QDWI does not bring it (POMS HI 03010.005; 42 CFR 423.773(c)). It works the other way too: if you apply for Extra Help, Social Security sends your application details to your state’s Medicaid office to start a Medicare Savings Program application, unless you say no (POMS HI 03010.005). The calculator works out Extra Help on a card of its own, and our Extra Help page has its 2026 income and savings limits.

What happens to my Medicare Savings Program when my income goes up?

It ends all at once when your income passes the highest limit, which is QI’s in the federal rules, and on the way it can move you from one program to the next. The help with the Part B premium does not shrink a little at a time: one dollar over the line takes all of it. Moving from QMB to SLMB keeps the help with the premium, but the calculator shows QMB paying deductibles and coinsurance too, and SLMB not.

More Social Security alone can end it. Take a 70-year-old in New Jersey who lives alone on $1,816 a month from Social Security, with $2,000 in savings. That income is at QI’s limit of $1,816, so the calculator still shows help with the Part B premium. It counts that premium as money, and the household has $2,019 a month. Now suppose the same person with $1,817 a month. One dollar more puts the income over the limit, the help ends, and the household has $1,817 a month. That is less money with a higher income.

Pay from work counts for less than Social Security, but it can end the help too. Go back to a 70-year-old in New Jersey who lives alone on $1,300 a month from Social Security, with $2,000 in savings. If this person took a part-time job, the help would end once pay reached $1,098 a month. At that pay the household has $202 less each month than at one dollar less pay, because the Part B premium has to be paid again.

The calculator shows your own case: type your income, then use the “What if you earn more?” box to see what a raise would leave you. Only your state’s office can say for sure what happens to your program.

How does the calculator work out the Medicare Savings Programs?

It finds the first program whose limit covers your income. In more detail:

1. It looks at who is on Medicare: anyone you tick as “On Medicare” and everyone 65 or older. It works out one person, or a couple when both spouses are on Medicare.
2. It adds up that person’s or couple’s income: pay, Social Security, unemployment and other income.
3. It counts that income the way SSI does, as the section above explains, using your state’s own amount in place of the $20 where we have it.
4. It turns what counts into a percent of the poverty line for one person or for two. Alaska and Hawaii have their own lines.
5. It checks your savings against the limit, unless your state has no savings limit.
6. It takes the first program that fits: QMB up to 100% of the poverty line, SLMB up to 120% and QI up to 135%, or your state’s own percents where we have them.

It counts the Part B premium as money, $202.90 a month for each person it covers, so the card and the month’s total show it, and a cliff shows where the help ends. If your income is over the last limit, the card says so.

How do you apply, and how do you avoid a scam?

You apply with your state’s Medicaid office, and applying is free. Medicare.gov has a page on these programs; it blocked our checks, so we could not open it. If you apply for Extra Help with Social Security, it can send your details to your state’s Medicaid office to start the application for you. No one may charge you to apply, and no one can sell you a place in a program, speed up an application or promise that you will be approved.

Be careful with anyone who says otherwise. Do not give your Medicare number, Social Security number or bank details to anyone who contacted you first. Give personal details only on an application you started yourself, reached from your state’s agency page or from Medicare.gov, not from a call, a text or an advertisement. If a website, a caller or a text asks you to pay to apply, it is not your state’s program.

This site takes no applications and sends nothing to any office. It never asks for your name, Social Security number or bank details, and the calculator keeps what you type in your browser. Only your state’s Medicaid office can decide whether you qualify.

Did the 2025 budget law change the Medicare Savings Programs?

It stopped one rule from taking effect. Section 71101 of Public Law 119-21 bars HHS from putting into effect, until September 30, 2034, the parts of a 2023 rule that was meant to streamline enrollment in these programs. The limits on this page are the ones Social Security’s manual lists for 2026, after that law.

The law also limits who can be on Medicare to U.S. citizens and nationals, green card holders, Cuban and Haitian entrants and people living in the United States under a Compact of Free Association. For people already on Medicare, that limit starts 18 months after the law was signed, which is January 4, 2027, and Social Security must notify the people it affects (section 71201). The calculator assumes everyone has a status that qualifies.

What does the calculator leave out?

• QDWI.
• Whose income a state counts when only one spouse is on Medicare. The calculator looks at that person alone.
• Things you own other than cash and bank savings, and what your state counts as savings.
• Whether QI still has room in your state this year, which is why it says “Maybe”.
• That QI cannot go with full Medicaid. It does not check for that.
• State rules we could not confirm. It uses the federal limits for those states.

Each answer is an estimate from the published rules. Only your state’s office decides whether you qualify and for which program. Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice.

Figures checked October 31, 2026.

Questions people ask

What are the Medicare Savings Program income limits for 2026?

For one person in the 48 states and DC, the monthly limits are $1,350 for QMB, $1,616 for SLMB and $1,816 for QI. For a couple they are $1,824, $2,184 and $2,455. Alaska, Hawaii and some other states differ.

What does a Medicare Savings Program pay?

All three pay the Part B premium, $202.90 a month in 2026 for each person. QMB also pays Medicare’s coinsurance and deductibles for Parts A and B.

How much savings can I have?

Under the federal rules, no more than $9,950 for one person or $14,910 for a couple. Maine, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have no savings limit, and some states set limits of their own.

Can I have QI and Medicaid?

No. QI is not available with full Medicaid, and New York’s page says a person cannot be eligible for both.

Do I get Extra Help if I have QMB?

Yes. People approved for QMB, SLMB or QI get Extra Help without applying, and Medicare tells them (POMS HI 03010.005). Our Extra Help page explains what it pays.

Will working end my Medicare Savings Program?

It can. Pay counts for less than Social Security, but enough of it takes your income over the QI limit and the help ends all at once. The calculator’s “What if you earn more?” box shows your own case.

How do I apply for a Medicare Savings Program?

Apply with your state’s Medicaid office, and applying is free. This site is an independent calculator, not a government website, and it takes no applications.

Updated November 1, 2026